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AND ASSISTED BY CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 







For a New America 


By Coe Hayne 

ft 

Author of: Old Trails and New, 
By-paths to Forgotten Folks , and 
Race Grit 


With an Introduction by 

Alfred Williams Anthony 


Published jointly by 
Council of Women for Home Missions 

and 

Missionary Education Movement of the 
United States and Canada 
New York 


BV 2765 
>H 3 


COPYEIGHT, 1923, BY THE 
COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOB HOME MISSIONS 

AND 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES AND CANADA 


1 


Printed in the United States of America 

OCT 25 1923 

©C1A759551 

/hA , /, 


To 

T. M. T. and B. K. T. 


and all devoted instructors 
of American youth 





I 


CONTENTS 


( 


CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword .ix 

Author’s Preface .xi 

Introduction .xv 

I. Country Life Work.1 


Team Work for the Community. The Spirit of the 
Frontier. When a County Becomes a Parish. The 
Fun of Being of Use. In Answer to the Call of the 
Country Places. 

II. The New Frontier .33 

Christ in the Tombs. A Church of the Tenements. 
Christ’s Healing Ministry in a Health Desert. The 
Church That Was Not Sold. His Apprenticeship to 
a Race. A Modern Exodus. Graduates Who Go 
Everywhere. Democratic Ideals of Service. Little 
Adventures in W 7 ayside Democracy. 

III. The First Americans.73 

The Spiritual Way of an Indian. Hitting a Race 
Problem on Four Sides. Cooperation of Federal and 
Religious Agencies on Indian Fields. 

IV. The Negro in America.100 

A Negro’s War on Jimtown. Agencies that Promote 
Justice and Equality of Opportunity for the Negro. 

Signs of an Aroused National Conscience. 

V. Spanish-speaking People in the United States . 123 

Introducing Benjamin, an American. One People’s 
Need Another’s Opportunity. A People Ready for 
the Gospel. An Increasing Emphasis on the Com¬ 
munity. Christian Education for New-day Leader¬ 
ship. 


v 



vi 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

VI. Some Spiritual Forces in Industrial Reconstruc¬ 
tion ........... 

A Problem of Personal Religion. First Steps To¬ 
ward a New Order. Open Forums. Salvaging Hu¬ 
manity in a Complex Industrial Life. A Problem 
of Social Solidarity. 

Appendix I. Life Enlistment in America . 

By Charles Emerson Burton 

Appendix II. Student Fellowship of Christian Life- 

Service . 

Appendix III. General Reading List .... 


V 


PAGE 

137 


167 


173 

174 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 

PAGE 

Open Air Service in a Hopi Village . Frontispiece 


Going to Church in Colorado.14 

Hiking Up the Canon.14 

A Normal Class in Haskell Institute . . . 15 

Diet Kitchen in a Negro Hospital .... 46 

A Day Nursery in a City Church .... 47 

A Russian Forum in a City Church .... 78 

In a Lumberman’s “Gospel Hut” .... 79 

A Class in English for Foreigners .... 79 







» 


/ 


% 


V 





FOREWORD 

This book is written for the Young Person. It has 
always been interesting to be a young person, but 
today the Young Person is more focal in the scheme 
of things than ever before since history began talking 
of the happenings of this old world. 

The Young Person stands at the point of radiation; 
from him or her stretch forward invisible ways run¬ 
ning to a horizon hidden by the tremulous atmosphere 
of the future. 

Along one of them Science stands in the beckoning 
forms of a Pasteur, an Edison, or a Graham Bell. 
Equally compelling are the ways of medicine, law, lit¬ 
erature, engineering, art, and business—in the latter 
the magical names of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, 
Ford, and others exert an almost irresistible influence. 

These multiplied ways centering about the Young 
Person, by their very presence and the number of their 
followers, say, “follow me,” all of them being capable 
of rendering life useful, Tvorthv, and beneficent. 

One other way, however, is also in the midst, which 
might easily be overlooked in the clamor of these— 
its prospects are not so brilliant on the surface or so 
readily appraised by the casual minded—and yet in 
the on-going this way develops a significance, a 
beauty, a power of response surpassing all the others. 

Regarded thoughtfully, it will be found to provide 
the foundation over w r hich all the others pass safely 

forward, its influence constantly permeating them 

ix 


X 


FOREWORD 


while they, in turn, give it of their practicality, vigor, 
and challenge. Without this life-giving way all the 
others would ultimately fall into chaos and disaster. 
Without it government, science, business, industry 
would collapse and civilization itself fail, for it is the 
way of evoking and expressing spiritual values—it is 
the way of Christian service. It is the way by which 
new capacity is given to needing humanity. It is a 
God-like way, for it is not only creative and construc¬ 
tive, but also gives itself that others may live. It is 
the way by which the more abundant life becomes in¬ 
creasingly possible for all. 

The dominating personality on this way is Jesus 
the Christ, and with Him are a multitude of those 
known and unknown who have made better the way 
of humanity. 

It is that this way may become more visible to the 
Young Person wherever he or she may be—in school, 
college, or out in life—and that the essential character 
and values of National Christian service—which w T e 
sometimes call Home Missions—may be more fully 
apprehended, that this book has been written by Mr. 
Coe Havne, himself a Young Person. 

The book aims only to be a sign post to the way— 
a flash light on the road—a gate opening to God’s 
highway of Christian service in America. 

Edith H. Allen, Chairman 

Joint Committee on Home Mission 
Literature representing The Council 
of Women for Home Missions and 
The Missionary Education Movement. 



AUTHOR’S PREFACE 

“The time has come for youth to demand a part¬ 
nership,” declared Sir James Barrie in his rectorial 
address to the students of St. Andrews. What is 
wanted, Mr. Barrie contended, is a League of Youth. 
The rector had in mind youth that demands a fighting 
partner’s share. 

“Doubtless the Almighty could have provided us 
better fun than hard work,” said Mr. Barrie, “but I 
don’t know what it is. . . . Courage is the thing, all 
goes if courage goes.” 

Youth with courage founded upon the supremacy of 
the spiritual life is an asset the churches can never 
afford to ignore. A persistency of facts, a revaluation 
of life, a sense of reality quickened by the events of the 
decade now drawing to a close, are elements in the psy¬ 
chological background of a world challenge to youth; 
back of it is a belief that the spirit in youth that shouts, 
“Nothing is impossible!” is the spirit that lives. 

Are there indications that the Church is being 
aroused by the chivalrous revolt of youth clamoring 
for action? Are there reserves which the Church has 
not called into the field? Dr. William S. Beard, a 
national secretary of one of the denominational boards, 
makes the following statement concerning the present- 
day attitude of great numbers of young people toward 
active Christian service: 

“There has never been a time in our history when it 

was as easy to direct the lives of young people in 

xi 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE 


• • 

Xll 

general and the student classes in particular into 
Christian service as it is to-day. Not only students in 
our colleges and preparatory schools, but also the 
young people in our churches are ready and waiting, 
provided someone will furnish them with a program 
of activity. 

“The boards have only to make known opportunities 
for service and there will be an abundant response. 
The question is, how long the young people will be of 
this mind unless the churches are able to utilize in 
full measure the resources available/’ 

Hope is entertained that the events recorded and 
the problems indicated in these pages will assist the 
readers to form an idea of the broad and varied aspects 
of the home mission enterprise. The writer disclaims 
commitment to particular methods of missionary pro¬ 
cedure. The means employed by a group of workers 
in a given community may not bring others out of the 
wilderness. To enlist in this field of Christian service 
is to become an explorer and it is given to those who 
go adventuring under the leadership of the Great Path¬ 
finder to discover opportunities capable of commanding 
their devotion, endurance, statesmanship and neigh¬ 
borliness. 

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Christian 
agencies and workers in many sections of the country 
for their generous aid in the preparation of this book. 
Church Boards, the Home Missions Council, the Fed¬ 
eral Council of the Churches of Christ in America, 
the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Young 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE xiii 

Women’s Christian Association, the Student Fellow¬ 
ship for Christian Life Service and other organizations 
have cooperated with the Council of Women for Home 
Missions and the Missionary Education Movement in 
ways that have been most heartening. The writer is 
under special obligation to Charles Emerson Burton, 
D.D., for permission to present at the conclusion of this 
book a portion of his survey of the opportunities 
for service in home mission fields open to young peo¬ 
ple; to the Judson Press of Philadelphia; and to 
Missions of New York, for permission to utilize por¬ 
tions of studies made during the past three years on 
frontier, Indian, and Negro mission fields; and to 
members of the staff of the Russell Sage Foundation, 
to Ralph A. Felton, Miss Jessie Dodge White, Rodney 
W. Roundy, Miss Florence E. Quinlan, and Franklin 
D. Cogswell for their counsel and many courtesies. 


April, 1923. 


C. H. 


INTRODUCTION 


A line drawn around all of the forty-eight states, 
and then extended to include Alaska, the Sandwich 
Islands, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Porto 
Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and Santo Domingo would rep¬ 
resent the dimensions of the home mission enterprise. 
Within this area the home mission agencies are min¬ 
istering to the Indians, who have been rightly called 
“the first Americans,” to the Jews, Negroes, Eskimos, 
Mexicans, the Orientals (including Chinese, Japanese, 
Hindus, Koreans and Armenians) as well as all other 
immigrant groups, New Americans of every stock. 

All of these people present home mission problems 
arising from their various conditions. Some are 
crowded densely in great cities; others are scattered 
and isolated on the open countryside; others, as 
laborers, toil in huge industrial enterprises; some live 
in lumbering and mining camps; others are the rov¬ 
ing hand-workers who follow seasonal occupations in 
the harvest fields. In terms of home missions this 
means facing the peculiar problems of the urban 
rural, industrial, and migrant groups. 

The forces at work are almost beyond enumeration. 
They include properly every agency and every influ¬ 
ence, whether religious, moral, philanthropic, or po¬ 
litical, which effect in any manner the welfare of 
people, and help bring in the reign of Jesus Christ 
in America. Every church as it seeks to build itself 
and minister to its own neighborhood, is, in fact, a 

XV 


xvi 


INTRODUCTION 


home missionary organization. Churches combine as 
associations, conferences, conventions, presbyteries, 
synods, districts, and dioceses and carry on extensive 
missionary work of almost every kind. Denomina¬ 
tions have national societies, bureaus, and boards; and 
these in turn unite in an interdenominational Home 
Missions’ Council and Council of Women for Home 
Missions, to correlate and coordinate the diverse 
efforts for the greatest efficiency, without conflict and 
waste. Then there have come into existence, usually 
on individual initiative, a host of interdenominational, 
or undenominational, bodies, working in the home field 
as an ally to the churches, aiming to improve condi¬ 
tions of health, or to heal the sick, or to relieve pov¬ 
erty and suffering, or to meet the needs of children, 
the aged, the unemployed, and other needy classes. 
These are all working effectively in the home mission 
field, as are also organizations like the Young Men’s 
Christian Association, the Young Women’s Christian 
Association, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, 
the Salvation Army, and other educational and sav¬ 
ing agencies. 

The whole task is to make the United States, as a 
nation, and the people, as individuals, Christian. Three 
aspects of this task are now prominent and urgent: 

First. The principle of cooperation is taking the 
place of unlimited competition. Partisan cries may 
still be uttered, and sectarian advantages still be 
sought, but the exclusive and selfish spirit is less win¬ 
ning and is winning less than ever before. The prac- 


INTRODUCTION xvii 

tice of cooperation which was compelled by the war has 
strengthened the passion for cooperative action that 
has been coming into expression for almost half a cen¬ 
tury. Men know that all well-wishers for humanity 
and all unselfish servants of mankind must be allies. 

Second. The discovery of neglected areas and un¬ 
performed service has aroused the conscience of 
churches. Townships have been found which are re¬ 
verting to paganism, because in our sectarian zeal we 
have left them open to dissension and strife. City 
blocks have come to light which are as destitute of 
religious services, and in some instances of the ordi¬ 
nary moral and physical safeguards, as though they 
w T ere in the midst of African jungles. Large groups 
of workers have been reported who, because cut off 
from the humanizing influences of Christian society, 
nurture convictions inimical to all forms of orderly 
government. It is apparent that Christianity has not 
yet won the earth, and Christians in America must be 
on the alert. 

Third. There is the important problem of living in 
right relations with races and classes. More than half 
a million Negroes have migrated from the southern 
cotton fields into northern industrial centers, seeking 
higher wages and better social conditions. The North 
has shown itself unprepared to receive them. Between 
Gentiles and Jews hatred exists, and each treats the 
other contemptuously. Labor and capital distrust each 
other. The rich and the poor fail of mutual under¬ 
standing and fellowship. 


xviii 


INTRODUCTION 


All this must change. Jesus was the incarnation of 
love among men. He had compassion. He showed 
sympathy. His life must be reincarnated in mankind. 
That is the solution of the problem of living in right 
relations with races and classes; that is the greatest 
present task in the whole home mission field. 

This book tells in concrete terms the story of life 
and ministry in this broad field and shows how young 
and old, sharing in home missionary endeavor, can 
help make America Christian and, through the diversi¬ 
fied character and contrasts of the people in America, 
help bring the world to Christ. 

Alfred Williams Anthony 

May, 1923. 


I 

COUNTRY LIFE WORK 

Team Work for the Community 

T HAT Burns should give up a good business con¬ 
nection and calmly choose a pastorate on what 
the Home Mission Board of his denomination 
considered the toughest field in Pennsylvania rather 
mystified some of his friends. They judged that his 
young wife and two promising boys deserved some¬ 
what better of him. But he was not long a mystery 
to the people he came to serve. Everybody under¬ 
stands friendliness in a neighbor, and Burns, first of 
all, was a good neighbor. If his efforts during the 
first few weeks in the little town, which for the pur¬ 
poses of this record will be called Middle Grove, re¬ 
sulted in any permanent good, the fact that he con¬ 
vinced a fair majority of his church members that he 
was glad to live in their town should be registered as 
among not the least desirable accomplishments. 

The Middle Grove people were of average intelli¬ 
gence at least. While they were unconscious of some 
of the disadvantages under which they were living, 
they knew that as a community Middle Grove was not 
meeting certain needs. The constant desertion of the 
place by their young people told them so. 

Burns was sincere. He loved the community for 

what he hoped by the grace of God it might become. 

l 


2 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


He loved the little old ramshackle of a church build¬ 
ing because it had been a place of worship for people 
who during the past generation or two had found God 
there and whose lives had been a blessing to the town. 
That the building had ceased to meet community needs 
did not cause him to condemn it. On the other hand, 
his reverence for the ancient building as the house of 
God brought to its pews some people who had not en¬ 
tered the church door for many years. But this is 
not to say that he was at all satisfied with the equip¬ 
ment for the up-building of the Kingdom in Middle 
Grove. 

Burns came upon the field with no rash notion of 
transforming the community at once. But he pos¬ 
sessed what Professor Edward L. Earp calls the “en¬ 
gineering skill to keep folks at work without friction.” 
He had the sense to find out first of all what were the 
needs of the community. The result of a scientific sur¬ 
vey was presented in a pleasing way to the people. He 
made a chart of his parish and in graphic style showed 
how and why the church could and should function in 
its relation to other saving agencies in the community. 
He had the ability to wait as well as to work. 

While Burns could be read like an open book by 
his parishioners and neighbors, he began after a time 
to talk in a way that puzzled many. What did he 
mean when he said that the church must relate itself 
to every legitimate community activity—including the 
planting of corn and potatoes—or the community itself 
would die of old age? What could the church do be- 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


3 


sides support a pastor whose duty it should be to guide 
folks to heaven? 

“We should so organize our work as to render a 
wholesome service to the entire community,” he said. 

Generalities were not a part of this young work¬ 
man’s mental and spiritual operating plant. He soon 
called his people together to consider a means of sup¬ 
plying wholesome recreation for the young people who 
were seeking unwholesome social enjoyment elsewhere. 
When he made a plea for a community hall, scarcely a 
person could look ahead that far; nevertheless, the 
women were ready to back him in the project. They 
had eighty dollars in hand, accumulated as a result of 
chicken-pie suppers and bazaars. Somebody made a 
motion that a building committee be appointed; the 
motion was carried by the women. 

Then a brother thought he saw a way to shelve the 
whole proposition. “Seeing that the pastor is the 
person most interested in this subject, I move that he 
be a committee of one to carry it out.” Burns did not 
dodge. On the contrary, he considered that a fine start 
had been made. 

The following morning a farmer driving past the 
church lot on his way to the county seat with produce 
saw his pastor with pick and shovel digging a trench. 

“What are you up to, might I ask?” 

“Excavating for our community hall,” replied Burns. 

“I don’t quite understand.” 

“This is the committee our people selected, and it has 
commenced to function.” 


4 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


As the farmer drove on, he indulged in a bit of con¬ 
structive thinking as a church member. That real en¬ 
lightenment was granted him from some source was 
evidenced by the rapidity with which he drove back 
to his barn and threw a scraper and a shovel into his 
wagon. While this record must remain incomplete as 
to what was done with the produce, it can be stated 
with authority that the entire day, in addition to sev¬ 
eral subsequent days, was spent by this farmer with 
his pastor on the site of the proposed community hall. 
Others came to the lot and fell to with an enthusiasm 
which furnished one more proof that the desire to ex¬ 
press genuine love for one’s community is contagious. 
There ensued no lack of labor, lumber, or cash to bring 
this first building project to a successful conclusion. 

There were three other communities included in 
Burns’ parish, and one after another they put up a 
building to house the social activities of young and 
old. 

The road to the county seat over which the Middle 
Grove farmer was about to take a load of produce the 
morning he discovered his pastor in overalls "was a 
poor one. During certain seasons it constituted a seri¬ 
ous barrier to community progress: it prevented the 
ready transportation of crops to city markets; it iso¬ 
lated Middle Grove as a rural trade center; it kept 
people home from church. For people to ignore a poor 
stretch of road is both uneconomic and un-Christian. 
Therefore Burns attacked the road evil as he would 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


5 


any other public nuisance. The organization of a Road 
Improvement Association was the first step. When 
four fifths of the farmers in the parish joined the asso¬ 
ciation, a united appeal was presented to the court to 
enforce its own ruling concerning this same piece of 
swamp road. The court told the road supervisors that 
delay would no longer be tolerated. The road was 
macadamized. 

Burns, it has been intimated, found a community that 
was underestimating its own possibilities and living 
far below its privileges without knowing it. As a 
minister, he considered it uneconomic as well as un¬ 
ethical to disregard the saving agencies outside of the 
church designed to help him and his neighbors. Some 
of the folks were not opening the doors to the repre¬ 
sentatives of these agencies. There was the Farm 
Bureau, for example. The agent had been having a 
hard go of it in the promotion of better farming 
methods. The preacher struck hands with the agri¬ 
culturist. Quietly, the man of the pulpit began work 
with the hoe and within two years was known as the 
champion corn raiser of the county. He plotted his 
own garden and demonstrated the value of the appli¬ 
cation of nitrates, potash, or lime to poor soil and the 
practicability of seed tests. This took but a little more 
time than the raising of corn of a less regal grade. In 
the meantime, the agent of the Farm Bureau found 
doors opening that formerly had been closed. 

Team work for the community became a recognized 
slogan in Middle Grove. That it became an intercom- 


6 FOR A NEW AMERICA 

munity ideal is the opinion of people in the county 
who know anything about the entertainments held in 
the four community halls built under Burns’ super¬ 
vision. The young people at each place prepared one 
program which they gave four times; thus there were 
held during one winter sixteen entertainments—four 
in each community. In addition to the “home 
crowds,” there w T ere visiting parties to increase the 
audiences. Accordingly, the social life of a large coun¬ 
try area was raised to a higher level. Acquaintance¬ 
ships were widened under wholesome influences. The 
somewhat boisterous public affairs, promoted for com¬ 
mercial reasons only, which had been patronized by the 
young people because they had no other place to go, 
gradually lost for them their attraction. In the course 
of a few months these same young people were rally¬ 
ing about the young minister when he inaugurated his 
training classes for religious workers. They offered 
themselves for baptism and membership in the church. 
They became his Bible school teachers and leaders of 
groups for Christian service of various kinds. They 
are to be found there today carrying on in His name. 

The Spirit of the Frontier 

Into the sage-brush country came Howard Bowler at 
a time when there were but few settled farming com¬ 
munities. About him were the vast stretches of sage¬ 
brush and lava deserts—a scene capable of filling his 
soul with grave doubts. A stranger surveying the 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


7 


monotonous scenery might have asked himself the 
question, “What good thing can come out of this 
wilderness?” 

Bowler had come as a prospector. Here and there 
he saw the outcroppings of riches incalculable, and he 
remained to realize on his investments of time, energy, 
and consecration. It was given him to see how wide 
were the possibilities of development of country and 
character alike. 

There were days when the outlook was anything but 
encouraging. Despondency is a state of mind that is 
not at all foreign to a missionary on the frontier. If 
at times he was tempted to search his heart for reasons 
why he should remain on such a field, he recalled Tom 
Worthington, who left the Boise Valley when the rail¬ 
road came—because it was becoming too civilized. 

Tom and his wife had hitched up the team and started 
to climb the divide that lay between them and Long 
Valley. When they reached the top of the mountain, 
they discovered that there was no way down the other 
side. Probably no one had taken a wagon into Long 
Valley along that route. There was no trail. Tom un¬ 
hitched his team, took hold of the tongue of the wagon 
and ran down the mountain with sufficient speed to 
guide the wagon and not be overrun by it. Afterwards 
he brought down the horses. He blazed the way into a 
land of plenty. The railroad soon followed him. 

When Bowler went to Long Valley, Tom Worthing¬ 
ton entertained him in his home. The missionary was 
not long in making the discovery that Worthington 


8 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


was a type of man to whom the frontier states owe 
much. He decided that when a man like Worthing¬ 
ton was willing to deny himself many if not all of the 
luxuries of life for the sake of developing the material 
resources of the country, certainly he ought to be will¬ 
ing to forego and undergo much for the development 
of the religious life of the state. With the passion of 
a pioneer he worked for the lives of men. Unflinch¬ 
ingly he remained at the job in that state over twenty- 
five years. 

In every sense of the word Bowler was a frontiers¬ 
man. He was skilled as a fisherman and marksman. 
“He can catch more fish and wing more birds and make 
less fuss about it than any other person west of the 
Mississippi,” said an old-timer. “If he had not been 
a preacher, he would have been a trapper.” As a 
plainsman, he had an instinct for finding his way when 
the trails ran out. He governed his course by his 
knowledge of the topography of the country. He would 
strike out and make new trails where others might 
become lost. He learned how to take care of himself 
in the wilderness, where, to survive, no man may de¬ 
pend upon another. He learned how to make “dry 
camp,” if need be, at night and to lie without covering 
with a minimum of discomfort under the desert sky. 
He learned how to find his way across a trackless desert 
in the burning heat of summer or to pick his way 
through the snow-drifts at midnight in the dead of 
winter. He learned how to trail his horses at day¬ 
break in the event of their wandering out of sight of 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


9 


camp during a night’s grazing or to mend his wagon 
when it broke down. 

The schoolhouses in which the missionary held gospel 
services were small and inadequate. For the most part 
they were little log structures with windows put in 
sideways because the walls were too low to permit an 
upright position. In most cases the short-termed sum¬ 
mer school was a necessity because of bad roads and 
the long distances. Many of the children rode to school 
on horseback. It was difficult to get competent teach¬ 
ers. Often young girls of mediocre ability taught these 
schools. 

The coming of the missionary was a factor in bring¬ 
ing about a more favorable educational system on the 
frontier. He held preaching appointments over a large 
area of the country. On account of his interest in the 
schools and his knowledge of the roads, the county 
superintendent arranged with him to make joint trips 
over the country for the purpose of visiting and study¬ 
ing the schools. While the county superintendent in¬ 
vestigated the school conditions, the missionary would 
cover the district and make announcements of preach¬ 
ing services. They covered Blaine County from Camas 
Prairie to the Lost River country. There is no way 
of estimating the value of such team work. There was 
a common phrase, “The preacher and the teacher.’’ 
They were connected inseparably in the thoughts and 
vernacular of the community. They were thought of 
as the two outside influences working hand in hand 
for the community. 


10 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


The missionary knew the teachers and school con- 
• ditions in every district in an area two hundred miles 
east and west and ninety miles north and south. Know¬ 
ing the young people of many communities, he was 
able to find and help in the development of good teach¬ 
ing material. Some of the teachers were converted in 
his meetings. 

Along with the homesteader, the miner, the stock 
raiser, the merchant, the banker, the lawmaker, the 
construction engineer, and the teacher, our frontier 
missionary was an empire builder. When a new town 
opened up, he visited the ground to select a site and 
lay the plans for aggressive church work. Religious 
services often were held by him in the first frame build¬ 
ing that was erected. The announcement sent out by 
the promoters of a new irrigation project lacked the 
best “selling point” if it did not contain the assurance 
that the nearest town afforded church privileges. The 
class of people attracted to a growing community be¬ 
cause of its churches is the class that demands a high 
grade school system. The public schools of the western 
states are unsurpassed. The idea of gathering children 
from wide areas and sending them in wagons and auto¬ 
mobiles to centralized schools has been developed in 
the West to a high degree of practicability. 

When Bowler went to the foothills of the Sawtooth 
Mountains to begin his work as a home missionary, 
saloons were prevalent everywhere. Liquor was the 
dominant influence in politics. The candidate who 
could distribute the most liquor was the winner at the 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


11 


polls. The missionary saw the real inside of the politi¬ 
cal game. In the section of the country he covered, he 
mingled constantly with office seekers, stopping at the 
same hotels and road houses and conferring with them 
in the adjustment of his preaching engagements. Often 
he took part of the time at a political rally, usually 
delivering a gospel sermon at the beginning of the pro¬ 
gram, for the political rally on the frontier usually 
wound up with a dance. 

The missionary was quick to learn that the principal 
influence in the winning of votes was the free distribu¬ 
tion of liquor. Anyone who opposed liquor was looked 
upon as a dreamer. The candidates carried whiskey 
jugs in their buggies, they had it stacked up in their 
campaign headquarters, they deposited a certain 
amount of money with the various bars and allowed 
the bartender to use his own judgment when to “set 
’em up.” The one condition was that he should tell 
whose treat it was. In this way the elections were 
practically determined at the bar. The self-respecting 
voter became apathetic. Politics were in a bad way. 

It came about that the politicians began to realize 
that the missionary was well known and that Jiis in¬ 
fluence was worth something. They began to seek his 
influence. In time they learned that Bowler would not 
help elect a man who put up liquor at the bars. W hen 
a number of men said that they would not resort to 
that method if he would endorse them for election, the 
missionary went into the political game and canvassed 
the entire county and thereby helped to elect men who 


12 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


were clean and temperate. He lived to see the day when 
liquor was eliminated entirely and when the preacheu 
actually had more influence than the saloon. The 
time came when, to secure election, a candidate had 
to come out for total prohibition. Public sentiment 
changed and the politicians gave the people what they 
wanted. 

Whatever these people of the frontier had, they gave 
freely for the religious development of their communi¬ 
ties. When a new church was necessary, the men built 
it with their own hands, in not a few instances hauling 
the material by wagon from twenty to sixty miles. 
Nor did these people think alone of their own religious 
needs. Their missionary spirit was shown in many 
striking ways. One winter Walter Ifland of Picabo 
secured the job of building the fire in the schoolhouse. 
For this service the boy received five dollars at the end 
of the three months’ term of school. It was the first 
money he had earned. He carried it home, gave it to 
his mother, and told her to give it to “the preacher” 
for the foreign missionaries the latter often mentioned 
in his sermons. 

Standing on the summit of Mt. Lookout, above 
Bellevue, the missionary could obtain a view of the 
entire country which he covered in his missionary 
journeys. The extreme western limit of his field was 
Pine, seventy miles west of Bellevue; the extreme east¬ 
ern point was Howe in Little Lost River Valley, one 
hundred and twenty-five miles east of Bellevue; the 
northernmost point was Ketchum at the headwaters of 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


13 


Wood River; and the extreme southern points were 
Hagerman and Shoshone. Between these widely sepa¬ 
rated outposts were nearly forty villages, mining 
camps, and district schoolhouses which the missionary 
visited whenever opportunity afforded. No congrega¬ 
tion ever was considered small by him. Matt Jones, of 
Wood River Valley, told the writer that he used to 
wonder at the eloquence of the missionary after the 
latter had made a long hike up to some camp on the 
side of a mountain to find less than a dozen miners as¬ 
sembled to hear him. “No audience was too small to 
get the best the kid had, you bet,” said Jones. “A 
terribly big evangelist came to our town once and he 
called our young parson the boy preacher. But the boy 
preacher was a good preacher just the same.” 

For homiletical material he used the best things that 
came under his notice every day. His theological 
school was the school of observation and experience 
conducted in the big out-of-doors where he came in 
contact with a people whose efforts were constantly 
pitted against the passive resistance of one of Nature’s 
most fiercely rugged frontiers. He tried to fit his 
message to the audience which he found awaiting him 
at any given place. An afternoon or evening service 
in some remote schoolhouse furnished him only an¬ 
other opportunity to make application of one of several 
texts which he might have used during his conversa¬ 
tions that day with men and women in their homes, 
in the hayfields, in lonely mining camps, or on the 
desert trail. 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


14 

He tried earnestly to neglect no opportunity to speak 
a word for his Master. His habit of going to the 
Scriptures for light in the solution of personal prob¬ 
lems has been characteristic of his work. The habit has 
led to many striking victories. 

One day Bowler was assisting in an open-air meet¬ 
ing in a western city. As he passed out of the park 
where the meeting was held, a man hurried after him. 

“Is that gospel meant for me?” asked the stranger. 

“It is meant for everyone,” replied the missionary. 

“But it can’t include me,” said the other in despair. 
“You do not know what trouble I am in.” 

The missionary invited further confidence. The other 
told him he was a fugitive from justice, having stolen 
funds from a New England bank where he had been 
employed. The missionary began at once to quote 
many passages of Scripture to convince the man that 
there was hope for him. Then he told the embezzler 
to return to his home and face his trouble. 

“I’ll do it!” declared the man. “I know my wife will 
forgive me. No matter what the law does to me, I’ll 
have peace.” 

He begged for a copy of the New Testament from 
which the passage had been quoted, and Bowler stepped 
across the street to his hotel and got him one from his 
traveling bag. As the missionary returned to the man, 
he saw him take from his vest pocket a powder and 
grind it into the pavement with his heel. 

“I was going to take it today and end everything.” 


A? 




















A NORMAL CLASS IN HEALTH EDUCATION CONDUCTED BY AN INDIAN IN HASKELL INSTITUTE. 



COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


15 


A few weeks later tlie missionary received the fol¬ 
lowing letter from a New England city: 

Dear Sir: 

This is from the man you met in - in July and were the 

instrument of turning to Christ. I have arrived home safely 
after quite a weary struggle and am happy to be able to write 
that my wife and I daily thank God for his kindness in leading 
me to speak to you that July night in the West. I have learned 
to take my troubles and trials to Christ, and I hope that I shall 
continue to do so all my life. I treasure, and shall continue to 
do so, the little Bible you gave me and read it every night. I 
was very fortunate in getting a good position the first day I 

arrived home and am with the - Company as foreman of one 

of the construction crews. 

Thanking you again for the part you have played in helping 
me to reclaim a wrecked life, I am, 

Yours respectfully, 

T. H- 

The missionary valued these companionable talks 
with individuals. His house-to-house visitations in 
connection with his meetings were as productive of 
good as his public addresses. He made it a rule in 
every community to accept entertainment in no home 
more than one day while conducting evangelistic meet¬ 
ings in that place. This gave him a chance to do per¬ 
sonal work, and many of his converts were secured at 
these fireside talks. There are many households that 
are happy today because of his presence therein as a 
guest in by-gone days. 

Bowler considered it worth while to make things 
clear to the humblest seeker after the truth. This was 





16 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


characteristic of his work. Said he: “We must not 
assume that the people understand very much about 
these things. Let us try to explain the simplest truths.” 
He found so many communities absolutely destitute of 
the Bible and ignorant concerning its wonderful mes¬ 
sage that he learned to present the truth from the 
A.B.C. stage onward. Using the simplest language, he 
gave others what God had given him. He seldom lec¬ 
tured, but made the members of his Bible classes do 
the studying. Very early in his ministry he used the 
approved discussion method of religious instruction. 

There are homes in Idaho where the missionary’s 
name is held almost in reverence. He possessed a pe¬ 
culiar attraction for little children. His friendship for 
children was so genuine and his ability to entertain 
them and instruct them was so marked that the parents 
rejoiced at his comings. Because he could sing and 
tell stories for the children, they came to love him and 
have confidence in him. In every community visited by 
the missionary there were children of different families 
who waged a merry rivalry as to whose home he should 
visit the next time he arrived in town. Most of these 
children have since become earnest Christians, and they 
attribute to the missionary’s influence a very large 
measure of the credit for all that they are religiously. 
He not only gave them a vital religious message, but he 
encouraged them to seek the largest possible prepara¬ 
tion for a useful life work. Many of the young people 
from these homes entered Christian educational insti¬ 
tutions. He was largely instrumental in awakening 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


17 


enthusiasm in young people’s work throughout Central 
Idaho and was active in interdenominational Sunday- 
school work, serving as president of the Idaho State 
Sunday School Association for several years. 

No study of these early home missionary fields fail 
to convince one that before the term social service was 
used generally, the Home Mission enterprise was exert¬ 
ing an influence that had a direct bearing upon the 
changing social order. 

While the day of the circuit-riders on the frontier 
is considered past, the pioneer spirit of those gospel 
messengers is required today in Kingdom building in 
the remote areas. The Larger Parish Plan is an adap¬ 
tation of the former method. Living on the land is 
still more or less a solitary affair notwithstanding the 
automobile, the good roads, the telephone, the home 
radio outfits, the daily free delivery of mail, and the 
daily metropolitan newspapers. There is need of gen¬ 
uine community consciousness to be developed in count¬ 
less localities. The present-day industrial unrest is 
acute in the West. The future strength of the church 
in western rural communities will depend upon an in¬ 
spired and sustained leadership which is to be re¬ 
cruited from the youth of the land. The call of the 
frontier is as insistent as in former days. 

Many sections in the mountainous regions of the 
West, back from the railroads, are destitute of church 
life. From twenty to fifty miles over mountain ranges 
must be covered in order to attend a religious service. 
But the territory includes many productive valleys and 


18 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


active mining and lumber camps. In one county hav¬ 
ing an area of more than five thousand square miles, 
religious work is maintained at only four or five 
points. Out of the twenty-four school districts in the 
county, twenty-one are without religious work of any 
kind. Another county has an area of forty-six hundred 
square miles, and out of the eighteen school districts, 
only three have any religious work carried on in a regu¬ 
lar way. Here are fields calling for a special type of 
manhood. Devotion, aggressiveness, love for hard 
work, and a missionary spirit carry the work to suc¬ 
cess. 

On the frontier will be found those who are hungry 
for Christian fellowship; others will be found who are 
reluctant to acknowledge their need of church life be¬ 
cause “church” is one of the many things without w T hich 
they believe they have succeeded in getting along fairly 
well. But a hearty welcome and helpful cooperation 
await Christian workers w 7 ho consider these prizes 
worth striving for among a people able quickly to de¬ 
tect the sterling character from the spurious. 

When a County Becomes a Parish 

In the heart of the Colorado Rockies nestled a little 
tow r n where the voice of a minister had not been heard 
for many months either to call the people to worship, 
comfort the sick, or speak God’s name when the dead 
were buried. In the surrounding mining camps there 
were children of school age w 7 ho never had seen a 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


ID 


minister. When one came at length, they looked at 
him with a curiosity that was not unmixed with dis¬ 
appointment. Mr. Milne was a sure-enough minister, 
they were told, but he was quite similar in appearance 
to the miners they knew. However, the preacher was 
not long in winning their confidence. 

Milne was the only minister in the county; the entire 
county became his parish. Some of his parishioners 
lived at the end of mountain trails requiring a full day 
in the saddle to cover. Sickness or distress of any kind 
would take Mr. and Mrs. Milne to the remotest mining 
camp, as, for example, when a miner told them that 
his wife got so lonesome she would climb to the little 
cemetery adjacent to the once populous mining camp 
to sit among the graves of friends of other days to 
get some sense of companionship there. 

After Milne had established the usual church activi¬ 
ties in the county seat, he caught the larger vision for 
a rural parish. As this mission typifies other mis¬ 
sionary rural fields in great sections of the West, it 
may be of interest to know what sort of community 
program the townspeople put into effect under the 
leadership of the missionary and his wife. 

On the second floor of the best business block in 
town the County Beligious Headquarters were estab¬ 
lished. In addition to the necessary rooms required 
for a general office and the pastor’s study, space was 
set aside for a library, community club work, and 
special educational classes. 

Milne was not guided by false notions concerning 


20 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


church control. He believed that the development of a 
community consciousness was a necessary step in the 
advance of the Kingdom in his home town. Conse¬ 
quently, local organizations that headed up at the com¬ 
munity center were not all under church direction. 
The library and reading room outfits were furnished by 
the townspeople from their homes. It w T as not long 
before five hundred volumes were on the shelves and 
many magazines on the tables—all donated. The in¬ 
terest in this public service spread throughout the 
county. The miners brought their own contributions 
to the library, one man carrying six books in his pack 
eighteen miles on foot. Books were lent to all miners 
and ranchmen and others living in the outlying dis¬ 
tricts. At a remote lake resort frequented by tourists 
a summer branch was established. 

The station agent organized a Boy Scout Troop, and 
two public school teachers organized the Camp Fire 
Girls and Blue Birds. The county clerk’s former ex¬ 
perience as a member of the faculty of an eastern busi¬ 
ness college made him competent to instruct classes in 
penmanship and stenography. The individual who won 
the highest honors at the close of the business course 
was a young man who walked four miles each way 
in order to attend the evening class. A graduate of 
the Denver Conservatory of Music directed the com¬ 
munity singing. 

Here again we find a pastor who considered team 
work for the community a desirable ideal toward which 
to strive. He did not believe that his church alone 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


21 


could do the job that needed to be done. So he was 
glad to avail himself of help from other saving agencies 
that touched the life of the community. Otherwise he 
might not have been appointed the secretary of the 
Board of Education. There had been a sad lack of 
interest in the public schools. A Parent-Teachers’ 
Association was formed and a winter course of enter¬ 
tainments planned. The members of the State Normal 
faculty gave willing and effective assistance. The rep¬ 
resentatives of the State Agricultural College found 
valuable allies in this pastor and his public-spirited 
coworkers in setting up institutes for ranchmen and 
cattlemen. A big armory was turned over to the com¬ 
munity workers for a gymnasium, making possible the 
bringing together of the different ages in organized 
recreation. 

In the meantime, the Sunday school doubled in en¬ 
rolment, the attendance of the young people at church 
services increased, and there has been steady and en¬ 
couraging evidence that underlying the progressive pro¬ 
gram of the church there is developing a new and a 
vital personal experience of Christ. 

The Fun of Being of Use 

“Let the people understand that you have come to 
help, then they will fall in line and help you. Teach 
and live a wholesome, joyous religion, and you will win 
out.” This, in brief, composed the instructions sent 
out from national headquarters of a Home Mission 


22 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Board to a band of college students who had volun¬ 
teered for service on rural fields in the Middle West 
and Northwest. More applications were received from 
capable young people than there were positions open. 
It was reported that the forty positions open the first 
year were sought by two hundred applicants. These 
students accepted their commissions and went to their 
stations, some to remote places, others to communities 
nearer home. They went out to interpret for less privi¬ 
leged peoples the best that they had received in Chris¬ 
tian homes, classrooms, churches, Y.M.C.A. and 
Y.W.C.A. forums, brotherhoods, debating clubs, stu¬ 
dent fellowships, social alliances, and life service 
leagues, “and,” as a sympathetic observer of the move¬ 
ment has well stated, “translated the spirit of it all 
out on the frontier or back in the byways and delib¬ 
erately used it to share their ideals of Christian life.” 

A few went to well-organized churches, the others 
to communities where the work was discouraging. In 
the majority of cases the students were not informed 
as to the exact nature of their activities, the thought 
prevailing that these young workers should make their 
own programs after a survey of the needs on their ap¬ 
pointed fields. 

“They went where they were sorely needed and ap¬ 
preciated ; where they knew their lives counted double. 
And they tackled jobs far and away too big for them, 
and yet so appealing that they were led to ask for divine 
reinforcements as they never had before. Then with 
redoubled powers they went full steam ahead; and 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


23 


everyone who has tried it knows that there’s no fun 
on earth like the fun of working to the speed limit 
because you w r ant to.” 1 

Their work completed, they went back to their col¬ 
leges and seminaries confirmed in their desire to de¬ 
vote their lives to some form of Christian service. 
Called upon to undertake work so varied and perplex¬ 
ing that their tact, ingenuity, patience, and resource¬ 
fulness were taxed to the utmost to master their prob¬ 
lems, not one young man or young woman broke ranks. 
Their church board secretaries had dared to send youth 
to the firing line. It is too late now to call the move¬ 
ment an experiment. In 1922 another call w r as sent 
out, and the early summer found this Home Board 
commissioning ninety-nine young people. Before going 
to their respective stations half of the group already 
were committed to the Christian ministry in the home 
or foreign field. Of the remaining fifty undergraduates 
thirty-three, at the close of the summer’s service, de¬ 
clared their intention to enter some form of perma¬ 
nent Christian work after special training in college 
and seminary. The ninety-nine went out from twenty- 
five schools and served as pastors, pastors’ assistants, 
and directors of religious education on rural fields in 
a dozen different states. 

“We have no organ,” reported one young man on a 
remote field, “we have no song books, no literature, and 
no finances. We have some consecrated voices, books 
will be supplied till they can buy new ones, money will 

i Jenness, Mary, Carrying the Christian Message , p. 93. 


24 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


come in spite of hard times; and, God helping, we’ll 
give these children a Sunday school!” 

From a young woman sent to a mission field in South 
Dakota this word was received: “I had not been told 
before leaving home exactly what kind of work I would 
be called upon to do, except that it would be with 
young people. Since my arrival a Daily Vacation Bible 
School has taken much of my time. I am the regular 
teacher for a class of girls, lead the choir, and, during 
the absence of the missionary pastor, act as superin¬ 
tendent of the Sunday school. The first month has 
been one of great experiences, considering the fact 
that the locality was absolutely new to me. I hope 
that next month I can accomplish more in return for 
this wonderful opportunity for Christian service.” 

A student pastor advertised that a Church Vacation 
School would open in a rural schoolhouse in a remote 
section of Montana. The success of the school de¬ 
pended upon securing a woman’s help with the small 
children. As it was haying time, there was extra work 
for all the ranchers’ wives. The school started with¬ 
out the helper desired. But the young pastor’s deter¬ 
mination to make a go of it anyway led a mountaineer’s 
wife to volunteer her services. Her pluck matched the 
parson’s. From her home back in the hills, eight miles 
from the schoolhouse, she rode horseback every day to 
teach the children. Her normal training enabled her 
to render expert assistance with the drills, handwork, 
and elementary Bible work. To reach the schoolhouse 
promptly at nine o’clock necessitated her rising at four. 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


25 


Morning and night she milked several cows, besides at¬ 
tending to her household duties. 

The spring of 1922 found a section of Montana stag¬ 
gering out of one of the severest winters in many 
years. Cold -weather with ice and snow continued 
throughout March. Scarcely can one blame the people 
of a certain parish because they grew “plumb discour¬ 
aged.” There was danger that the church would lose 
its best workers. It is a satisfaction to record that 
the minister was not the first one to move out. He is 
there at the present writing “pioneering still.” Last 
spring (1922) he wrote to his Home Mission Board a 
letter which he concluded with a question that came 
straight from the shoulder nearest his heart. What 
reply should he have received from the secretary of the 
Board? The letter follows: 

Dear Brother: 

People seem to think that this is the hardest winter they have 
had for years. A great deal of stock has been lost for want of 
feed. 

I am mailing you a sale bill. This tells some of the story of 
what I am trying to do among the people with whom I work. 
Note the name of the auctioneer. This is my first attempt at 
auctioneering and I asked the Lord to help me make good. I 
tried to go through with the ordeal just as if I had been an old 
head at the business. After the sale was over a fellow came to 
me and said, “If you say you never done that kind of work before, 
you are a-liar.” 

I make no charges for a service of this kind, but the six dollars 
I am sending with my report was handed to me for auctioneering 
the sale. I accepted it only on agreement that we give the 
church credit for it on missions. 



26 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


I have sold hogs, carried eggs and butter in my car to town and 
sold them, made speeches at farm clubs, talked milking cows 
and feeding hogs, and worked up a cooperative hog shipping asso¬ 
ciation for our people here on this field. Last fall we shipped 
the first two car-loads of fat hogs that have been sent by rail 
out of Ismay. Farmers have begun to milk more cows, feed 
more hogs and raise more chickens here since I came upon the 
field. Next fall we expect to ship quite a few car-loads of hogs. 

The kind of work that I have been doing may not be sanc¬ 
tioned by all ministers, but I know of no better way to “become 
all things to all men that by all means I might save some.” This 
is my first consideration. Men must be saved. Second, people 
must farm differently if they make a living in this country. 
Our work cannot be a success where the people are starving to 
death. 

I have tried at all times to get across the idea that the Home 
Mission Society has me on the field for service and that that 
service may be rendered in other ways than just preaching in 
schoolhouses and club halls. Some of the people have begun to 
see this and are making use of such service as I can render. 


In Answer to the Call of the Country Places 

The reconstruction of church life in the open country 
will continue or the virility of American life in many 
urban as well as country communities increasingly 
will be impaired during the generations immediately 
ahead of us. Hon. Gifford Pinchot declared at the first 
conference held by the Commission on Church and 
Country Life: “The permanent strength of any civiliza¬ 
tion is best measured by the soundness of life on the 
land. It "was the failure of agriculture far more than 
the decadence of the cities that sapped the power of 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


27 


ancient Rome. The farmer feeds and clothes us all. 
From the country comes the strong new blood which 
renews the vigor of the towns. The tenacious spiritual 
ideals of the open country constitute our most resist¬ 
ing barrier against the growing laxity and luxury of 
our social organization. It is the country church rather 
than the city church which is in fact our best defense 
against the advance of the evils of our time.” 1 

There is a growing company of young men and young 
women in America who are facing the rural problem 
without seeking an alibi for themselves. If the country 
life is not what it should be, they are determined to 
cease blaming their progenitors for the situation. They 
believe that the church under gracious and determined 
leadership may rank as the most attractive force in 
any community. On the other hand, by no false op¬ 
timism are they blinding themselves to the actual dif¬ 
ficulties connected with rural church w T ork. If the 
country places are among the lost home fields, then 
will they be reclaimed when as definite life enlistments 
are made for the rural work in America as are made 
for the foreign work. The same type of Christian man¬ 
hood and womanhood, the same devotion and the same 
courage are required for the one field as for the other. 

i The Church and Community Life. Edited by Paul L. Vogt, 
p. 7. 


28 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Suggestions for Additional Study and Discussion 

Mark 3: 31-35 1 

1. Describe the rural community in which you live or the one 
with which you are the most familiar. 

2. What outstanding contribution economically, socially, re¬ 
ligiously, or educationally has this community made to society ? 2 

3. In what way does or does not the local church meet com¬ 
munity needs in the locality in question? 

4. What saving agencies aside from the churches are maintained 
there ? 

(Those agencies other than Boards of Home Missions with 
programs of rural service on a national scale, represented in the 
National Council of Rural Social Service affiliated with the 
American Country Life Association are as follows: National 
Grange, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Board of 
Farm Organizations, Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative 
Union, American Home Economics Society, American Red Cross, 
Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of America, Federal Council 
of Churches, Young Men’s Christian Association, Young Women’s 
Christian Association, United States Department of Agriculture, 
States Relations Service; Office of Farm Management; United 
States Public Health Service, United States Bureau of Educa¬ 
tion, United States Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau; 
National Organization for Public Health Nursing, National Child 
Labor Committee, Child Health Organization of America, Russell 
Sage Foundation, National Tuberculosis Association, National 
Educational Association, Rural Department; American Library 
Association, National University Extension Association, National 
Child Health Council, Playground and Recreation Association of 
America and Community Service, Inc.) 3 

1 This and other similar scriptural references are drawn from 
Harrison S. Elliott’s text-book for discussion groups, How Jesus 
Met Life Questions. For this reference, see Chapter XXII. 

2 Cowan, John F., Big Jobs for Little Churches. 

3 Vogt, Paul L., Church Cooperation and Community Life, p. 143. 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 29 

5. In what way may the churches cooperate with these social 
agencies ? 

6. What type of social, religious or educational worker is most 
needed in the rural community you have in mind? 

7. What relation has rural economics to the spiritual develop¬ 
ment of a country community? 

8. Under what circumstances will a margin of surplus fail to 
prevent dissatisfactions among the people of the open country? 

9. Why should Christian farmers make the best farmers? 

10. Why is it a reasonable religious duty of social and re¬ 
ligious workers to help the people of the open country build up 
their domestic and social institutions in a way commensurate 
with their incomes? 

11. When there is a tendency on the part of the religious 
leaders of a given community to limit “spiritual” things to 
personal religious experiences, what should be the attitude of 
an aggressive rural pastor toward them when planning with the 
representatives of other saving agencies for the improvement of 
the schools, recreational needs of the community, library facilities, 
better roads, better farming, public health, etc.? 

12. Having in mind that 49 per cent of the people of the 
United States live in the open country including towns of less 
than 2,500 population, why should not the knowledge of dis¬ 
couraging aspects of the rural church life problem and of the 
obstacles that hinder the advance of the spiritual kingdom in 
rural communities deter young men and women from dedicating 
their lives to rural religious and social work of some character? 

13. What are some of the unparalleled compensations resulting 
from such a life work? 

14. From what sources naturally may we look for rural- 
minded pastors, teachers, secretaries of Christian associations and 
welfare workers? 

15. W’hat policies and programs would you suggest for the 
church or other Christian agencies within the community under 
discussion? (Outline may be submitted in writing to the group 
leader following discussion period.) 


30 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


In a discussion of rural church programs the group may find 
helpful the following data relating to the Larger Parish Plan 
as carried out at Collbran, Colorado: 

Guided by a spirit of interdenominational comity, two churches 
of different denominations in Plateau Valley, Colorado, allocated 
to a church of a third denomination the work of developing and 
maintaining the Parish Center, each separate church pledging 
its determination to develop the religious life in its own territory 
in separate parts of the valley. The Montana Plan of inter¬ 
denominational comity contemplates the allocation of specific 
denominational activity in neglected areas throughout an entire 
state. For information concerning this plan which is receiving- 
wide-spread approval, address The Home Missions Council, 156 
Fifth Avenue, New York City. 

Miss Helen 0. Belknap, after her study of the work at Coll¬ 
bran [The Church on the Changing Frontier , p. 113), says, “This 
Larger Parish Plan is the old circuit rider system brought up to 
date and given an all round significance through the use of 
modern means of transportation and an equipment suited to a 
religio-social program. The minister is no less a preacher and 
man of God because he is a community builder. His measure of 
‘success’ is his ability to work out with his people a genuine 
program of rural and social service.” 

The plan is being worked out on a constructive basis. Miss 
Belknap reports, “There is now Methodist Episcopal work in the 
extreme eastern end of the valley, Baptist in the central part, 
and Congregational in the extreme west. Each church sticks to 
its own territory; each urges members of its own denomination, 
to work with churches in other sections. But the larger parish 
equipment serves all in the extension program.” 

The activities centering at Collbran with its commodious com¬ 
munity house are given in order by Rev. William D. Barnes of 
Collbran in The American Missionary. 

1. From the business office a visitor may pass to the public 
library, the only one within one hundred miles. Twelve hundred 
volumes are here assembled, each book listed under the Dewey 


COUNTRY LIFE WORK 


31 


Decimal System. 2. Assembly room suitable for men’s groups, 
Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Christian Endeavor, socials, and the 
customary meetings of the church; may be transformed by folding 
doors into two study rooms for beginners and primary classes of 
the standardized church school. 3. A room equipped with auto¬ 
knitters, called the “Ladies’ Room”; used on Sundays as a <£ Wor- 
ship Nursery,” where babies under three years of age may be left 
while mothers attend service in the adjoining church. 4. Game 
room in basement. (“So popular among the boys that the owner 
of one pool shack has gone out of business and the other is trying 
to sell out.”) 5. A room for a Children’s Hot Lunch. Soup and 
cocoa served at nominal cost to children who attend the consoli¬ 
dated school and bring their lunches. 6. The workers are the min¬ 
ister of the Collbran church, the “extension man” and his co¬ 
worker. In addition to the services of worship in the church 
building adjoining the community house, services are held at 
Plateau City and other outlying districts (exclusive of the serv¬ 
ices conducted by cooperating churches in other parts of the val¬ 
ley). 7. A revolving Daily Vacation Bible School with a session 
held each day by the director in one of the ten outlying school- 
houses in the area served by the Central Parish. 8. A children’s 
church meeting every Sunday morning for songs. Scripture stories 
and a sermon. 9. Educational motion pictures for children in iso¬ 
lated communities by means of a portable projecting machine and 
storage batteries. 10. Broadcasting the morning service by radio 
to people meeting in schoolhouses in outlying districts. 11. An¬ 
nual Every-Family Canvass. The attendance at the church school 
increased 150 per cent in four months, and thirty-seven members 
were added to the Collbran church within a year, including “the 
leading lawyer, banker, doctor, contractor, editor, merchant and 
rancher.” 


32 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Supplemental Reading 

Beard, Augustus F., The Life of Frederick Oberlin. 1909. Pil¬ 
grim Press, Boston, $1.25. 

Brunner, Edmund deS. (Editor). A series presenting the re¬ 
sults of a church survey in the field of town and country 
conducted by the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys, 
New York. Published by George H. Doran Co., New York. 
Pend Oreille County, Washington. 60 cents. 

Salem County, Neio Jersey. 90 cents 
Sedgwick County, Kansas. 90 cents. 

Irrigation and Religion. Edmund and Mary V. Brunner. 
$2.50. 

The Old and New Immigrant on the Land. C. Luther Fry. 
$2.50. 

Rural Church Life in the Middle West. Benson Y. Landis. 
$2.50. 

The Country Church in Colonial Counties. Marjorie Pat¬ 
ten. $2.50. 

The Church on the Changing Frontier. Helen O. Belknap. 
$2.50. 

Butterfield, Kenyon L., The Country Church and the Rural 
Problem. 1911. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, $1.00. 
Carver, Thomas Nixon, Principles of Rural Economics. 1911. 

Ginn and Company, Boston. $1.30. 

Vogt, Paul L., Church Cooperation in Community Life. 1921. 

Abingdon Press, New York. $1.00. 

Wilson, Warren H., The Church of the Open Country. 1911. 
Missionary Education Movement, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; 
paper, 50 cents. 


II 

THE NEW FRONTIER 

Christ in the Tombs 

T HE vast, irreligious spaces of lower Manhattan 
began to invade the soul of him. His resolution 
to surrender was made one blustering Wednes¬ 
day night after the midweek service which, for him, 
in his discontent, had been a pitiable reminder of a 
day long past. He would report to his Board that 
there existed no reason why denominational funds 
should be expended to maintain the big, handsome 
building as a place of worship in the downtown dis¬ 
trict. Had he not been told that his appointment was 
in the nature of an experiment? No one had expected 
him to accomplish the impossible. Yet month after 
month he had fought against immeasurable odds be¬ 
cause he could not give up. He w r as a born fighter. 

Out of the slush of the street he returned to her, his 
face acknowledging defeat. But the wife had read the 
signs earlier that day and had taken extra pains with 
the dainty lunch that awaited him near the blazing 
fireplace. A woman always knows how to fight. 

The telephone bell interrupted her bright chatter. 
An Italian girl desired to speak to the pastor, and the 
latter listened to a familiar story. The girl’s father 
had been sent to the Tombs because of his failure to 

obey a court order concerning the truancy of his son. 

33 


34 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Would the minister help? Yes, in the morning. But 
to stay in jail all night! The girl’s voice broke as she 
pleaded for immediate assistance, which was promised. 

The city missionary left the cozy room to obtain the 
temporary release of a shiftless Italian, and on his way 
to the Tombs he experienced a revulsion against his 
voluntary task. What slightest benefit to anyone 
could come out of that night’s work? A half-imbecile 
girl, thrusting upon him her domestic woe, had called 
him out into the slush. A paltry five dollars was 
needed to satisfy the law that night! He knew the 
girl—she had somewhat of a name in the tenements— 
and he knew her father. They represented a class that 
was forever getting into trouble. Why this service 
from him at such an hour? Conscious of his own help¬ 
lessness in the face of the city’s need, he grew bitterly 
despondent. At the entrance of the subway he paused, 
his soul in utter revolt. He was demanding an answer 
to an insistent question—an answer that might serve 
to prevent him from calling himself a fool. 

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me!” 

The familiar words which came to his lips had be¬ 
come vibrant with new life and meaning. 

“Christ in the Tombs! He is waiting there for me!” 

His task became a privilege. On his way to meet a 
King, he forgot that his shoes were w^ater-soaked. The 
irresponsible Italian behind prison bars was a child of 
God—a brother. 



THE NEW FRONTIER 


35 


A Church of the Tenements 

In the crippling congestion of the downtown section 
of New York City, a Californian has been at work eight 
years. At one time, early in his Metropolitan min¬ 
istry, the battle had so absorbed his energies that he 
was obliged to leave his parish. For a few weeks he 
lay very close to death, but finally w T on in the up-hill 
struggle, one prayer being uppermost, that he might 
have the strength to go back, if only to die in the tene¬ 
ments he had growm to love. 

In a neighborhood of extreme density of population, 
the tenements swarming with people who were 
strangers to the “my neighbor” meaning of community 
spirit as we know it in varying degrees in American 
life, he has continued the work to which he was ap¬ 
pointed. No sudden miracle has transformed the dis¬ 
trict. A new earth and a new heaven have not been 
created for him except within the realm of his own 
soul-life. The same dingy, over-crowded tenements 
tower above him as he walks the streets of his parish, 
yet the atmosphere, so unfavorable to culture, good citi¬ 
zenship, and character in which live the people whom 
he desires to serve, no longer stifles him. The crushing 
sensation of isolation has passed. Those whom he 
serves he considers the chosen ones of Christ. The 
source of his joy is derived from a consciousness of 
comradeship with Him. Such joy laughs at barriers. 
Disappointments, failures, misunderstandings, betray¬ 
als—the whole category of events and omissions that 


36 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


conspire to drive an apostle of good-will to the black 
wilderness of despair, has failed to break his heart. 
He has set out upon a great adventure. Impressed with 
the courageous and generous living of great numbers 
of men and women and boys and girls herded in blocks 
where conditions are most adverse to the development 
of desirable human character, his thought for his tene¬ 
ment neighbors has not been warped by visions of 
packed auditoriums or increased membership enrol¬ 
ments. He has found his freedom in the belief that 
the life of the Church depends upon the measure of its 
helpful service for the community without respect to 
group or individual affiliations, social or religious. In 
losing itself, the Church is to be assured of life. The 
strength of this faith is thrown into his plea in behalf 
of the children of the tenements: 

“The tenement robs the boys and girls of many of 
the finer qualities of life. But the tenement is not en¬ 
tirely a thief, for it gives back to them in enlarged 
measure many other qualities that are splendid; the 
quality of team play, of sacrifice, of ability to endure 
hardship, of contentment in the face of poverty and of 
happiness in the face of suffering. Without Christian 
idealism, however, there is grave danger that these 
qualities may all be used for sinister purposes. It is 
the duty of the Church of Christ to put back into the 
lives of the children the idealism the tenement steals 
away. Those who have watched the processes of ad¬ 
justment that take place when idealism is coupled with 
the virtues that the tenements inculcate are enthusi- 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


37 


astic in their testimony that the combination produces 
wonderful character results. What a crime against 
Heaven and against Humanity that we allow the tene¬ 
ment to wring all of the finer virtues out of the lives 
of its children without making a vital attempt to re¬ 
place them.” 

Has a knowledge of actual human conditions in all 
lands dented the courage of the unseeing? If the 
pessimist is one who knows, is not an optimist one 
who knows and sees? With knowledge and vision, an 
inspiring number of missionaries carry on hopefully 
amid unspeakably sordid surroundings on foreign or 
native soil. They are among those who preserve the 
strength of the Church. They help to keep it tuned 
to the fighting pitch in the face of world conditions 
that tend to make many hearts fail. 

Able and consecrated helpers came in answer to the 
appeals of the Californian in behalf of the city. The 
large church building gradually ceased to hold its ter¬ 
rors for him because of its unused spaces. Even the 
organ loft up near the roof has been so arranged as 
to floor space and furnishings that it can be quickly 
converted into a club room for employed young women 
and for co-eds in the near-by commercial schools. 

From upper Fifth Avenue and the tenements below 
Fourteenth Street have come volunteers to share a 
common Christian privilege and rejoice in the oppor¬ 
tunity to rescue the fallen, to heal the sick, to play 
with neglected children, to counsel sympathetically 
with the erring, to instruct the youth, to lead young 


38 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


men and women into His way and to influence acquaint¬ 
ances to enter a serviceable ministry in His name. 

Students have come to this downtown church from 
Columbia University, New York University, and other 
schools of higher education to ask for opportunities 
to put into practice the principles of altruism dis¬ 
cussed in class-rooms. And these young people have 
discovered that their contacts with the boys and girls 
of the slums have been more than experiments in social 
service. Men and women of culture, members of up¬ 
town churches, have had their owm lives enriched as 
they have mingled with groups of boys and girls of 
foreign-speaking parentage, and the latter, in turn, 
have gained from these social experiences incentives 
that have helped them toward worthy American citizen¬ 
ship. Experience in this sort of w T ork yields proof that 
friendships formed with the unprivileged youth of the 
city constitute a challenge to the best that any worker, 
paid or volunteer, has to give. 

Our Californian considers himself a stretcher bearer 
on a burned-over battle-field. While this may be true 
from a certain point of view r , a survey of the weekly 
program of activities carried on by the staff of work¬ 
ers in this Christian center reveals features wfliich 
classify as constructive as w T ell as palliative. And not 
infrequently the Californian goes out upon the “firing 
line,” w 7 hich in his judgment may be a wealthy church 
society on upper Fifth Avenue, an editors’ convention 
in Ohio, or a bankers’ convention in Virginia. Upon 
these occasions he speaks plainly and fearlessly of con- 


THE NEW FRONTIER 39 

ditions in the tenement district where his church is 
located. We can give only a fragment of his story: 

“English language staggers and fails when an at¬ 
tempt is made to describe the housing conditions that 
exist in the Italian tenement section in the lower west 
side of New York City. They are terrible beyond de¬ 
scription. Dirty, dreary, sodden, unhealthful, neg¬ 
lected, they constitute a menace to America more pow¬ 
erful in their depressing influence than all the ‘red’ 
propaganda of the wildest and most revolutionary anar¬ 
chist. 

“Crowded into these indecent and un-American—yea, 
these uncivilized—environments—these people do not 
know what life really means. In summer they swelter 
and droop under the fierce heat, and in winter they 
sicken and die in the cold and damp and terror of it 
all. We would not keep cattle in such terrible sur¬ 
roundings, for we could not afford to have cattle die— 
they are worth money. But babies—babies are the 
cheapest things we have. Lots of them are born; to 
lose many of them does not seem to be a matter of 
serious concern to America—and to many American 
Christians. 

“In the terrible, indecent squalor which is produced 
in these vile smelling, dirty, ratty tenements, the in¬ 
fant mortality is 108 for every 1,000; while that for 
the city at large is 98 for every 1,000. This means that 
we lose by death ten more babies per thousand than in 
the city at large. In our district, where probably 5,000 
babies were born last year, we lost fifty babies by death, 


40 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


principally on account of the carelessness of the hous¬ 
ing and environment situation. Suppose one of these 
babies were yours ? 

“But the evil results of such home conditions are not 
all classified when the death-rate is explained. What 
about the children who live? What is the effect of 
bad housing upon them? This is a question the answer 
to which blanches our cheeks when we think of what 
it means. This terrible housing situation saps their 
energy and steals their happiness. Rickets and tuber¬ 
culosis stalk through the stinking halls, and in the con¬ 
gested rooms, stealing the color from the cheek and 
putting a stoop in the back, dragging the resiliency 
from the spirit, and carrying away all of the joy of 
childish healthfulness and happiness. Old before their 
time, these youths of the tenements face the handicap 
of poor physical equipment added to their other de¬ 
privations, which makes their struggle toward Ameri¬ 
can citizenship a difficult and in many cases an im¬ 
possible task. 

“It is not to be wondered at that where people live 
in such confusion and congestion a high rate of mor¬ 
bidity is found among the youths and among the 
adults. 

“Some day America will wake up, some day America 
will give justice and clean homes to these folks. Some 
day America will right these terrible wrongs, and tear 
down these festering, hellish places of sickness and suf¬ 
fering. Some day America will make the word ‘home’ 
connote the same thing to these people that it does to 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


41 


us, or else some day America will pay for her neglect 
with the heavy coin of struggle. 

“Somewhere Kipling says, ‘The sins we do by two 
and two, we pay for one by one.*' The sins that America 
commits by permitting so many potential citizens to 
die before their time and by dwarfing the bodies and 
souls of those who live, because of the housing horror 
which it thrusts upon them, must be paid for by re¬ 
pentance and rectification. 

“Our workers have not blinded their eyes to the 
tragic homes of their people. We shall never cease to 
have our hearts torn by the pathos of life that sur¬ 
rounds us, and, God willing, we shall never cease to 
raise our voice of protest against the inhumanity of 
those who fatten themselves with the gains derived 
from these terrible warrens of the poor. Constantly we 
pray, ‘How long, O Lord, how long!’ But in the mean¬ 
time, we seek to render such helpfulness as we may, 
and we find our opportunities for service very large 
because the needs are so overwhelming.” 

Christ’s Healing Ministry in a Health Desert 

The following stories are typical of many that could 
be told concerning the work of devoted, aggressive 
men and women, who are endeavoring to interpret the 
spirit and ideals of Christian America for people of 
every race and color caught in the back-wash of our 
overflowing cities. 

In a certain tenement home a visiting nurse had been 


42 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


making calls for two months. She came from the 
health clinic in the basement of the Church of the Tene¬ 
ments and had brought relief to the family in a variety 
of ways. During this time she made the acquaintance 
of seven children. She was greatly surprised, there¬ 
fore, when the mother brought out to her one day, 
another child, the eighth, and the youngest. The 
mother, whose confidence had been won by the dis¬ 
interested and helpful ministry of the nurse, confessed 
that she had kept her baby concealed whenever 
strangers called as she had been afraid that it might 
be taken from her on account of its condition. Igno¬ 
rant and suspicious, she had been the victim of a social 
isolation as complete as if she had been a castaway 
upon a barren island. She had looked out from her 
restricted life upon a community seemingly so inhos¬ 
pitable and alien that she had feared to entrust to it 
her afflicted child. It was a situation that might have 
continued indefinitely had not one called who looked 
upon her work not as a job, but as a privilege. Her 
youthful heart spoke a language understood by this 
mother of alien birth and speech. 

Deformed Mario was loved by his parents with a 
passion blind to every consideration except that of 
possession. He was terribly emaciated w r lien the nurse 
discovered him. At three and one-half years of age he 
weighed sixteen pounds when he should have weighed 
thirty-two. He could not express his wants in speech. 
His neck muscles were so weak that his head lay upon 
his shoulders, his legs so bowed and his ankles so de- 


THE NEW FRONTIER 43 

formed that he could not walk except as he waddled 
upon his ankle bones. 

The head doctor of the health clinic believed there 
was a chance for Mario although he had developed 
extreme rickets through faulty hygiene, poor food, and 
lack of sunshine. He w T as placed in the Hahnemann 
Hospital, where his legs were straightened, a proper 
diet prescribed, with generous allotments of fresh air 
and sunshine. At the end of three months he returned 
to his tenement home, his legs in braces. The visiting 
nurse from the clinic again took up the case. Mario’s 
sister w^as enroled in one of the classes in nutrition, 
and she is now able to prepare proper meals for the 
boy. 

The head doctor spoke to the Californian the other 
day concerning Mario; there was a ring of triumph in 
her voice. “Mario is now within seven per cent of 
normal. His legs are straight, and he walks and runs 
and plays like other children. We will put him in 
the kindergarten at six years of age, normal, with his 
chance for life before him.” 

Just a word about the head doctor and the scope of 
the work in this health clinic. After completing a 
thorough medical training, this Christian woman had 
come to the Church of the Tenements desiring an inter¬ 
view with the Californian. Quickly the two came to 
the conclusion that there was a way in which they 
could cooperate. They agreed that Christ’s healing 
ministry should be given a place in this district where 
forty thousand people w T ere afforded scant provision for 


44 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


the care of the sick. The institutional work carried 
on in the basement of the church was modified to make 
possible the setting aside of two rooms for a health 
clinic. 

In a neighborhood famous as a health desert, the 
clinic under the direction of the physician who had 
volunteered her services without salary flourished 
amazingly from the first month of its operation. Al¬ 
though a child of the Church of the Tenements, the 
clinic now has its independent board of managers and 
continues a service that is conditioned neither upon 
creed nor color. It is always able to enlist the co¬ 
operation of the staff of the Church of the Tenements 
and other Christian workers. 

During the first eleven months, in the two rooms par¬ 
titioned off in the basement, 7,057 treatments were 
given. The services of six physicians were secured for 
the seven clinics, Children’s, Women’s, Men’s, Eye, Ear, 
Nose and Throat, Dental, Oral Hygiene, and Malnutri¬ 
tion, the three last named with quarters in a near-by 
neighborhood house, an institution which also had its 
birth in the Church of the Tenements. 

In the district there were six thousand children be¬ 
tween the ages of one and five without medical super¬ 
vision or attention to defects, where the infant mortal¬ 
ity -was greater than in any other part of the city. 
Long before larger quarters could be secured for the 
clinic, the two basement rooms were outgrown. One 
visit to the clinic while it was still in the church will 
be remembered always by the Californian. A troop of 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


45 


amateur dramatists held forth in the social room, the 
members of an Italian boys’ club were playing basket¬ 
ball in the gymnasium, and there was the usual large 
number of mothers and children awaiting medical at¬ 
tention. Not infrequently the basket ball, with thun¬ 
dering impact, hit the thin partition that separated the 
clinic from the gymnasium, a part of whose playing 
space it had usurped. Little children who had been 
brought for treatment escaped from their mothers and 
ran dangerously near the zone of athletic hostilities. 
Altogether, the place was a trifle too busy. The doctor 
was supremely happy. 

"I’ll certainly be glad to say good-by to you,” the 
pastor told her. 

There was real foundation for the Californian’s satis¬ 
faction inasmuch as a large building near the church 
was nearly ready for occupancy. A few days after¬ 
ward the enlarged clinic was opened. The staff has 
been increased to ten nurses, four dietitians, three so¬ 
cial workers, four part-time dentists, and three full¬ 
time oral hygienists. A paid executive secretary super¬ 
vises the work which is coordinated with the general 
health program of the city through affiliation with the 
Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. 

The Church That Was Not Sold 

Near Manhattan Bridge may be found today a church 
edifice of substantial construction occupying land al¬ 
lotted from the original Rutgers estate and lacking but 


46 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


a few years of being the most ancient house of worship 
on Manhattan Island. Some of the most distinguished 
men of the American pulpit served there as pastors. 
Its congregation was made up of members of families 
of the substantial Knickerbocker type. The names of 
leading merchants, financiers, professors, lecturers, 
teachers, and philanthropists were upon its books. But 
at the completion of half a century of usefulness the 
church was without a congregation. The constituent 
members gradually had removed from a changing and 
unfriendly environment and, scattering, became deter¬ 
mining forces in Kingdom-building enterprises in up¬ 
town and suburban communities. 

The church was deeded to a man of large means and 
consecrated initiative who saw the need of a special 
kind of religious work for the seamen w T ho had no suit¬ 
able place in which to spend their time during the 
long stops between the sailing of vessels. He permitted 
the Seamen’s Church to occupy the premises rent free 
and later sold the property to the administrative body 
of which the new organization was a constituent mem¬ 
ber, at a price considerably less than what it was 
worth. The deed gave the ’worshiping body the right 
of occupancy until “it shall be decided to be no longer 
expedient to continue or sustain religious services or 
missionary work in that church or locality.” 

The work in the historic building was carried for¬ 
ward with varying degrees of success by a “flock of 
God, poor in this world’s goods, but rich in faith, to 
whom the environment, even when changing from bad 



diet kitchen in hospital maintained in connection with a mission 

SCHOOL FOR NEGROES IN THE SOUTH. 









■ 



NURSERY IN A CITY CHURCH WHERE BABIES ARE CARED FOR DURING THE 

MOTHERS’ WORKING HOURS. 







THE NEW FRONTIER 


47 


to worse, was a challenge to faith and valiant service.” 1 

The neighborhood continued to change, and the up¬ 
town movement of the churches kept on until there re¬ 
mained in that section of the city but four Protestant 
churches for 60,000 people, including the “Seamen’s 
Church.” Suddenly it was decided by the ecclesiasti¬ 
cal ruling body that it was no longer “expedient” to 
sustain the work at the “Kirk on Rutgers Farm.” It 
had no minister and but few influential friends. Up¬ 
town churches were in need of the money which would 
accrue from the sale of the old landmark. A valiant 
superintendent of a city mission society, a constant 
friend of the church, gave heartening instructions to 
the city missionaries at the church “to stay until the 
doors were shut.” Associated wdth the missionaries 
was a group of young people who had grown to love 
the massive walls of the old “Kirk.” For them it 
typified the best things which life had to give. They 
raised the blue church flag and declared that no one 
would ever take it down. 

The flag was never lowered. It flapped itself into 
shreds; it gradually disappeared; but it was never low¬ 
ered. In spirit that same bit of blue bunting waves 
above the church today. For the church was never 
a more vital force in the community than it has been 
during the past twenty-five years. When the “Kirk on 
Rutgers Farm” was about to perish, a young man of 
faith and courage who may be ranked as one of the 

i George Alexander in Introduction, The Kirk on Rutger3 Farm , 
by Frederick Briickbauer. 


48 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


pioneers in the city work as it is known at its best, 
threw himself into the breach. Denison conceived that 
he had a definite call to contribute the best years of 
his life to help make the bewildering district about the 
church a real part of Christian America. He came 
down to the lower end of Manhattan at the beginning 
of what proved to be an eventful summer to join that 
amazing group of Christian young men and women and 
to declare by actual service rendered that there was a 
place for a self-sustaining church on Henry Street. 

Who would support the church? Why force the 
existence of this particular church upon the conscious¬ 
ness of a people who seemed to be utterly indifferent 
to all efforts to make known the fact that the old struc¬ 
ture on the corner stood for something of which they 
had need? There are other questions of this char¬ 
acter which might have been uppermost in the minds 
of those who favored the disposal of the property. 
Denison dismissed them all by leading the young people 
in an assault upon the forces that were destroying lives 
and homes and character. “How best may we capital¬ 
ize the glorious history of our Church for Christ and 
for wretched, suffering human beings in our end of 
town?” There was hope in a challenge like that. It 
carried the young minister and his gospel workers 
through the scorching fires of an aggressive opposition 
that began the night he led his forces to East Broad¬ 
way to engage in a street meeting. Two thousand 
people assembled at the sound of the organ and sing¬ 
ing. The young people talked in turn, and every time 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


49 


the name of Christ was uttered the multitude howled. 
When the demonstration failed to discourage the young 
people—the majority of them "were the children of Jew¬ 
ish parents—over-ripe fruit and stones, as well as bad 
language, were used as missiles. One night a girl 
singer was hit in the face by a stone. Denison vigor¬ 
ously remonstrated against the use of such cowardly 
measures by anyone who could hide himself in a cro'wd. 
He told of his purpose in coming to them and men¬ 
tioned his association with a prominent city pastor w’ho 
was at that time w r aging a bitter fight against a cor¬ 
rupt political machine in control of the city govern¬ 
ment. A policeman walked out of the crowd and asked 
for a hymn book. Denison did not question the of¬ 
ficer’s motives but gladly made him a member of his 
open-air chorus. Order w r as restored for the time be¬ 
ing. 

“Now we understand what Christ went through, : ” 
said a young volunteer worker. She knew in part be¬ 
fore winter came. 

To whom could the “Kirk on Rutgers Farm” look 
for support? As the summer wore itself away the 
question somehow lost its pertinence. As Mr. Bruck- 
bauer has well said, “It was no longer a self-evident 
proposition that a church not able to support itself 
must go.” The church thrust itself above its own ap¬ 
parent helplessness and, before many weeks had passed, 
became the mother of a mission, a mission open every 
night in the week. Denison’s visits to the industrial 
plants in his neighborhood enabled him to preach “ob- 


50 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


ject sermons” which carried the message of the gospel 
to working men in their own vernacular. He could 
hold the attention of fathers and mothers as well as 
boys and girls. A peddler’s cart bearing a sign and 
pushed by a man who rang a bell advertised the Sun¬ 
day night meetings. Services were held in the lodg¬ 
ing houses and tenements. A stereopticon was used in 
the church services. And through the week the church 
visitors made the rounds of the tenements, following 
up the families whose addresses were obtained during 
friendly greetings at the church. The gospel was car¬ 
ried into the community by systematic home visitation 
carried on from the start. The workers gained a knowl¬ 
edge of the sort of folks who lived in the spacious old 
houses in Cherry Street, with the colonial doorways and 
mahogany interior fittings, which had once been the 
homes of well-to-do families—houses which had de¬ 
generated into some of the cheapest, most ill-kept lodg¬ 
ing houses in the city and in many cases the hiding 
places of drifters of a vicious type. The congested tene¬ 
ments were visited where a kindly persistence in the 
face of rebuffs transformed the curses of yesterday into 
today’s eager greetings of friendship. One gracious 
worker of that day became nationally known through 
Denison’s stories gathered in a volume which, in many 
of its features, comprises a record that has few paral¬ 
lels in home mission literature. 1 

Early in his ministry Denison saw the value of or¬ 
ganizing his church for civic welfare. He had trained 

i Denison, John Hopkins, Beside the Boicery. 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


51 


under a minister who had not been deaf to the city’s 
cries for Christian aid. He cooperated whole-heartedly 
with organized charity. He became familiar with the 
proceedings of the juvenile court. He spared no time 
and energy, nor did he hesitate to draw upon his re¬ 
sources in personnel and personality to help make ef¬ 
fective the parole system of saving first offenders. His 
sympathy for the victims of despair who inhabited the 
crowded tenements was genuine. Without regard to 
race or church affiliations, he was their friend. 
Whether engaged in the merry pastime of playing some 
street game with a group of neglected children or 
breaking up a drunken brawl, he was known as the 
minister whose heart was in the right place. He did 
not spurn contact with the vile, unreasoning, and de¬ 
bauched denizens of the underworld if thereby he could 
help some desperate soul out of the mire. More than 
once he fought through an entire night to aid in a 
battle against strong drink, neglecting neither prayer 
nor a doctor’s prescription at necessity’s demands. At 
any time day or night he could with impunity enter 
the impossible dwellings or pass along the streets where 
swarmed the most vicious elements. His clericals were 
the insignia of his good intentions. 

Denison could turn an unpleasant encounter into an 
opportunity. One day in Hamilton Street a group of 
hoodlums hurled insulting remarks at him when he 
spoke to them. His rejoinder was a body blow. He 
asked the neglected youngsters how they would like to 
have a place where they could play without being 


52 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


molested by policemen and which would be open 
every day the year around. Boy! Would they like 
it? Not long afterward a neighborhood house was 
dedicated on that street. 

Near the “Kirk on Rutgers Farm,” a building was 
secured to be used as a church house. Firm was the 
belief that an essential part of the missionary enter¬ 
prise is the application of the gospel to social condi¬ 
tions. This church activity housed in its more recent 
quarters is a living force in the community today, its 
influence ever widening. Its founders were walling to 
back a Christian ideal expressed by Denison in this 
way: “It is not an institution—it is not even a settle¬ 
ment; it is simply a house w T here people live. The 
time is gone by for men and women to come dow r n as 
outsiders and pry into the homes of poverty and sin 
and then return to their ow r n life far away. One must 
live in a community, one must be a neighbor.” 

Young people from many sections of the city joined 
Denison as volunteer workers; a group of young men 
lived in the church tower and were associated with 
Denison in his entire city program. Some of these 
young people have achieved national recognition in 
their respective professions and in various kinds of 
Christian werk. Numerous clubs w r ere organized for 
adults and for boys and girls, and the visiting staff fol¬ 
lowed up the club work. The home never was lost 
sight of. 

“When our city churches give home visitation its 
proper place in their programs and enlist enough ca- 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


53 


pable paid and volunteer workers to cover the territory, 
the cities will be captured for Christ. Overlapping 
should cease; the ground should be thoroughly covered. 
By home visitation I do not mean a survey or a per¬ 
functory house-to-house canvass. Some Christian per¬ 
son representing the churches should be in continuous 
personal touch with every family and house of the city.” 

The “Kirk on Rutgers Farm” is no longer slated for 
the auction block. The problems confronting the 
workers to be found there are as difficult as in former 
years. But you may find them digging away at them 
with the Panama Canal workers’ reputed willingness 
to “specialize in the impossible.” The personnel of that 
band of city workers comprises an American pastor, an 
Italian pastor, an assistant, the church secretary, di¬ 
rector of religious education, boys’ worker, girls’ 
worker, two kindergartners employed by the New York 
City Kindergarten Association, volunteer club "work¬ 
ers, visiting missionaries, and several students who 
have chosen certain phases of active Christian work in 
the needy district to supplement their classroom 
training. 


His Apprenticeship to a Race 

Two young men, one an American, the other a 
Bohemian, met at the English Club in Prague. One 
was under appointment by the Board of Home Mis¬ 
sions of his church, and the other was a student in the 
University of Prague and an atheist. 


54 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


The two had many interests in common. The Ameri¬ 
can, in order to prepare himself for the highest use¬ 
fulness as a home missionary, desired to learn the 
Bohemian language; the other desired to perfect his 
English. Because of the latter’s partial knowledge of 
the English language the two were able to carry on 
a desultory conversation. It was arranged that the 
atheist should become the teacher of the missionary 
under appointment. 

Months followed during which teacher and pupil 
spent much time upon the streets, in parks, and in 
the libraries, museums, and art galleries of Prague. 
They discussed Bohemian and American history, mu¬ 
tually gaining thereby. They visited shops which dis¬ 
played for sale the embroidery, laces, and wooden 
toys which had been made in homes under the encour¬ 
agement of societies organized to promote native arts 
and crafts. 

In this way Kenneth D. Miller began a study of the 
old world background of a people he had elected to 
serve. In time he came to know Thomas G. Masaryk, 
professor of sociology in the University of Prague, and 
Mrs. Masaryk and their two daughters. The year was 
1913, and the stirring events of the World War and the 
formation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia w T ere 
ahead of the Masaryk makers of history. Many ad¬ 
ventures in friendship marked these days of Miller’s 
apprenticeship to a racial group w T hose traditions in¬ 
clude the names of Jan Hus, Komensky (Comenius) 
and Havlicek. 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


55 


After six months of intensive study in Prague, Miller 
acquired sufficient knowledge of the Bohemian lan¬ 
guage to make his wants known. He then went out to 
a small village to absorb its atmosphere. The young 
atheist, while he served as teacher, also had been an 
eager pupil, and in time the Christian ideals which the 
American home missionary had commended as worth 
striving for became warp and woof of his soul-life. He 
is now an active Christian and a member of a Bo¬ 
hemian Brethren church in Prague. 

In the village referred to above no one could con¬ 
verse in the English language with Miller and conse¬ 
quently his progress in the acquisition of the Bohemian 
language became rapid. As he found opportunity for 
friendly contacts in the homes of the people, he became 
acquainted with peasant life. The local Protestant 
minister aided him in this. He added to his store of 
knowledge of the native arts, music and folk dances. 
The welcome he received everywhere was inconceivably 
hearty and genuine. The people were glad that he had 
come to them. When he left at the end of two months 
to begin an itinerancy of four months throughout other 
sections of Bohemia, their regret at his departure was 
keen. He had been a real neighbor among them. In 
the districts from which had gone large quotas of emi¬ 
grants to America, Miller continued during four 
months a close study of the life and customs of the 
Czechs, making note of their architecture, the interior 
and exterior decorations of their homes, the distinc¬ 
tive dress of different localities, their standards of work 


56 FOR A NEW AMERICA 

and life, their schooling facilities, their recreations and 
social and economic conditions. He spent little of his 
time sightseeing, as such. He was about his Father’s 
business. It will be remembered that the statement has 
been made that he was under appointment as a home 
missionary. 

Have we an Americanism once for all delivered to the 
patriots? Or has America the genius and the strength 
to appreciate and appropriate the physical, intellectual, 
and spiritual wealth represented by the many groups of 
New Americans that have come within its borders? In 
addition to the primary purpose of promoting the re¬ 
ligion of Christ among all people, what, in a Christian 
Americanization program, is of more vital import than 
the teaching of the English language or the exposition 
of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution 
of the United States? 

Miller was honest in his quest for answers to these 
questions and spent a year with the Czechs (in 1913 a 
subject people in Austria-Hungary) in order to arrive 
at a deeply sympathetic and broadly Christian point of 
view respecting the heritage and potentialities of this 
people. With a knowledge of their Old World back¬ 
ground, he returned to America to begin his life work 
among them on the upper East Side of New York City. 
It was no uncertain notion which he had concerning 
his call to this particular home mission field. He saw 
the need. And where could he find a people more re¬ 
sponsive to or more deserving of a faithful ministry? 

After several years among them he describes them 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


57 


as “intelligent, progressive, and fairly prosperous and 
among the best of all the foreigners in our country. 
But one thing is lacking to make them the peers of any 
foreign people in this country; namely, the embodi¬ 
ment in their individual and community life of the joy¬ 
ous idealism and consecrated spirituality of the gospel 
of Christ.” 1 

Here, then, was his job, and he considered it big 
enough to command all of the courage, skill, and devo¬ 
tion of which he was capable. He felt that his church 
was back of him. That his church was ready to answer 
a great need with a statesmanlike program was an 
inspiration to him. The Czechoslovaks, in that section 
of Manhattan, had a self-supporting church whose his¬ 
tory was a commendable one. It had been served by 
one pastor since its formation, a man who had won a 
sure place for himself in the esteem and affection of a 
large congregation. By itself, however, the church was 
not able to take advantage of an unparalleled oppor¬ 
tunity to serve the community in the special way which 
the Jan Hus Neighborhood House has made possible 
through home mission agencies. It was to assume the 
duties as director of this church house that Miller ac¬ 
cepted a commission to serve as a home missionary in 
New York City after one year’s residence in Bohemia. 

He required no introduction to the people of the 
neighborhood. The fact that he had taken the pains 
to learn their language, even going so far as to spend 
an entire year in Europe to accomplish this end, was, 

i The City and the Church. New York Presbytery, p. 65. 


58 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


in itself, an introduction. They are a people who would 
have been won to him even if he could have spoken their 
language but falteringly. 

In cooperation with the Czechoslovakian pastor, 
Miller and the young men and women assistants in 
the various departments of the work are laboring to 
preserve what is best in the arts, music, and historic 
religious ideals and traditions of the Czechoslovaks. 
“The end sought is no provincial, narrow sectarianism,” 
declares Miller. 1 “Neither are we insistent that Amer¬ 
ica contains the last word upon religious truth, any 
more than we are confident that our political, economic, 
and social structure is not susceptible of improvement. 
We know that we have much to learn from these new¬ 
comers to our shores. And we are zealous that they 
retain that which is best in their national culture, 
particularly their traditional religious ideals, and unite 
them with the best that America has to give to them. 
But we are convinced that the best in our American life 
is so inseparably bound up with religious ideals upon 
which the nation was founded and which constitute our 
most precious national possession, that no newcomer 
can wholly share in our American life without an ap¬ 
preciation of those ideals and a sharing of them. We 
are all seeking a way of life, and we are convinced that 
in Christianity, particularly as interpreted by the 
founders of our republic and their spiritual heirs, we 
have the ‘Way of Life’ for all of us, old settlers and 
newcomers, as individuals, and for America as a na- 

1 Miller, Kenneth D., Czechoslovaks in America , p. 147. 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


59 


tion. Briefly stated, we would have these Czecho¬ 
slovaks join us in the adventure of seeking to follow 
the Way which Jesus followed, and from the same mo¬ 
tives that dominated Him, to the end that our country 
may become in very fact a Christian country. Any 
means that assist us in achieving this end are there¬ 
fore to be employed.” 

A Modem Exodus 1 

While many foreign-speaking colonies are being built 
up, others are disintegrating as the people composing 
them leave the United States for their native coun¬ 
tries. According to press reports, the greatest exodus 
of foreign labor known in South Jersey industrial dis¬ 
tricts took place when eight hundred aliens, mostly 
Roumanians, left the Roebling wire mills and Florence 
iron works for their old homes in Europe. It was as¬ 
serted that most of them had saved enough in the five 
or six years they had been in this country to keep them¬ 
selves and their families without further work in their 
homeland. 

At once a score of questions arise. These eight 
hundred workmen may be viewed simply as so many 
treasure-seekers who have returned to their native land 
with fortunes of varying amounts in terms of dollars 
and cents. (It is reported that their individual for- 

i The discussion under this and the two following headings is 
the outgrowth of conversations with Dr. Charles L. White during 
visits to the congested districts of Manhattan and Brooklyn 
Boroughs. 


60 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


tunes ranged from $2,000 to $6,000.) But to others 
this exodus may suggest things of national interest. 

Here are eight hundred graduates from the Univer¬ 
sity of America. What treasures other than gold did 
these sojourners take back with them? Having reached 
their native land, what shall be their unanimous verdict 
concerning this great school? Are they better men 
now than when they entered our country? No one can 
deny that they are missionaries of one sort or another. 
Some will proclaim the gospel of Christ as they may 
have received it in America; some the gospel of greed 
and hate as it may have been taught them here. How 
many became Christians since they came to America? 
How many of them will long to come back to America, 
bringing others with them? 


Graduates Who Go Everywhere 

In this vast university are students from every cor¬ 
ner of the globe, and many of them, having taken its 
undergraduate and graduate courses, have returned to 
the distant lands from which they came. And because 
many of them do leave never to return, are we to con¬ 
sider their schooling here a vain undertaking? 

The question may arise as to the propriety of spend¬ 
ing home mission funds in behalf of aliens who never 
give up hope of returning to their native land. But 
is it not a great thing for a university to send out its 
graduates? To refer once more to the Roumanians: 
Christian work among them in America had been car- 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


61 


ried on under the Board of Home Missions of one de¬ 
nomination until the membership of the churches of 
this particular faith and order numbered twelve hun¬ 
dred at the close of the war. As soon as the way to 
Europe was opened, fully six hundred members of these 
Roumanian churches returned to their native country 
where they soon became a positive force in the develop¬ 
ment of Christian work through the organization of 
churches, Sunday schools, and young people’s societies 
in communities where none of these organizations had 
existed before and in the strengthening of the Christian 
agencies already formed. 

Have we been worthy tutors, guiding newcomers in 
the selection of the best courses this great university 
has to offer? Have we assisted them in choosing their 
comrades and societies? For we are all members of 
this school, and our contributions are either positive 
or negative, making for progress or retrogression. 

Democratic Ideals of Service 

This university is none other than the great Ameri¬ 
can society of fellow citizens, each trying to help the 
other to a little knowledge, a little sense of comrade¬ 
ship, a little comfort. A concrete example of such a 
society of fellow citizens was the A.E.F. University in 
France—a group unique and unparalleled as to spirit 
and personnel. The Student Register of this university 
was a virtual League of Nations; the names on this 
roster represented almost every country under the sun, 



62 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


yet all attending this school were United States soldier- 
boy students wearing Uncle Sam’s uniform. 

With inadequate classrooms, inadequate laboratories, 
and inadequate text-books, this was a successful school 
and accomplished the purposes for which it was or¬ 
ganized. The teaching of the A.E.F. University in 
France was done by fellow citizens—officers and men 
who were simply comrades in arms. 

In addressing the A.E.F. University, Professor John 
Erskine, chairman of the Army Education Commission, 
gave an adequate exposition of a principle that might 
well dominate every religious program for aliens. He 
said: 

“We think of teaching too exclusively as a special 
profession. . . . We content ourselves that the public 
schools or the paid teacher at the university can attend 
to education for us; we need not worry about it. 

“There once were men and women, in days long gone 
by, who thought the ordinary charity of life should be 
the affair of specialists—of the monk, the priest, the 
hermit. We now understand better the obligation upon 
us all to provide clothing and shelter for our fellows in 
need. The most selfish man now loses a little sleep, 
even in a comfortable bed, if he knows a beggar is 
couched on the cold pavement in front of his house. 
But this is the only kind of charity we are as yet deeply 
interested in, and this is but physical charity. We are 
not yet quick to share the intellectual bread and drink 
and warmth which may have come to us by good for¬ 
tune. The beggar and the starving man trouble us; we 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


68 


are even worried over the poor who do not realize how 
poor they are; we would teach them to take their part 
in society. But we are not greatly troubled by igno¬ 
rance in a man, though his ignorance may bring himself 
and his family to many kinds of disaster, though his 
ignorance may poison us with disease, or with what is 
as dangerous, with prejudice and the beginnings of 
hate. We are little disturbed when such a man is con¬ 
scious of his ignorance and would be glad to learn; 
still less does it cost us worry if he is quite content not 
to know. 

“If in this university we can adopt an unselfish atti¬ 
tude toward those fellow citizens who wish to be 
taught the knowledge in which we are richer than they, 
perhaps we may take home with us a new ideal of in¬ 
tellectual service.” 

We are being reminded repeatedly by our educators 
as well as by our statesmen that the winning of the 
war did not end the struggle for a safe and enlightened 
democracy in America. We have simply passed 
through the first stages of that struggle. The strife is 
bound to continue, and whether it is carried on with 
bloodshed or takes less terrifying forms will depend 
upon the readiness and adequacy with which we attack 
our home problems. 

Little Adventures in Wayside Democracy 

Eight years ago Victor Scalise came to this country 
from Italy. He knew not a word of English and noth- 


64 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


ing of our laws and customs. Between him and Ameri¬ 
cans there seemed to exist a barrier which he was un¬ 
able to break down. After eighteen months he could 
detect little change in his relationship with Americans 
and American institutions. He worked hard and a 
large percentage of his earnings went to his loved ones 
in Italy. He lost all interest in becoming a citizen of 
the United States. Least of all was he interested in the 
Christian religion. 

One day a minister of the gospel came to Victor in 
a little tailor shop and offered to teach him English. 
For four years he studied the language Americans use. 
Through the medium of this language he learned what 
it means to be an American; he learned what it means 
to be a follower of the Saviour. He became a mem¬ 
ber of a local church and accepted the responsibilities 
attending this relationship with more than the average 
loyalty. He taught a class of boys in the Bible school, 
and before he went into the American army, from 
which he received an honorable discharge after nine 
months’ service, he was president of the brotherhood 
and of the Christian Endeavor Society. His personal 
contacts resulted in bringing into the church his 
brother and three other young Italians. He has begun 
to study for the ministry and in a few years his mes¬ 
sages will be heard in American churches or in 
churches in his native land. 

A vital factor in any solution of the immigration 
problem is the education of the foreign-born mothers 
of large families. A considerable proportion of chil- 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


65 


dren brought before juvenile courts are the children of 
law-abiding foreign-born parents. These youngsters 
are proud of being themselves American, but in many 
cases reject the influence and authority of foreign-born 
parents who do not speak the language of America. 
One step in the advancement of the solitary women 
in foreign-speaking homes is the Neighbors League 
method which provides educational advantages for 
these women. Many of them have lived in this country 
for years and could not speak English until home teach¬ 
ing was instituted for them. Their husbands learn 
the language from contacts outside the house. Their 
children learn it at schools maintained at public ex¬ 
pense. In the family life “Mother” immediately ac¬ 
quires a new position of influence when it is known 
that an “American lady,” quite the equal of “teacher,” 
is her friend, teacher and adviser. 

Fifteen hundred “Volunteer Service Cards” are on 
file in the office of a Christian Americanization secre¬ 
tary in Chicago. They represent desire on the part of 
as many American women to be of service to their 
neighbors who have come from other lands. They 
have formed friendly contacts with foreign-speaking 
families. They conduct classes in English. They do 
more. Close to their own thresholds or just around 
the corner they find opportunities to exercise those 
graces of personality which are the tokens of real 
friendship. In countless communities where there are 
foreign populations and where no supervised mission¬ 
ary work of any kind is being done, may be found vol- 


66 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


unteers who have undertaken to reach foreign-speak¬ 
ing people through Christian friendliness. This spon¬ 
taneous service is encouraged by local churches, Home 
Mission Boards, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., the Neigh¬ 
bors League of America, the Salvation Army, and other 
saving agencies as one of the best means of making 
Christian America a reality rather than a pretty union 
of two words that means nothing to untold numbers of 
foreigners. In a number of places on record young 
women are conducting sewing classes or clubs for 
groups of foreign-speaking girls. A group of Ameri¬ 
can young women volunteers in this enlarging Chris¬ 
tian service go into the Stockyards District of Chi¬ 
cago regularly to conduct classes. What their visits 
mean to the foreign-speaking girls with whom they 
have made contacts may be imagined when it is re¬ 
called that American women are seldom found there. 
What tremendous opportunities in this and similar 
foreign-speaking districts! 

Thirty young men from nearly as many states made 
their residence in New York City during the summer 
of 1922 upon the invitation of the International Young 
Men’s Christian Association for the purpose of engag¬ 
ing in volunteer social-religious work in the tenement 
districts. They were furnished rooms and meals by 
the different settlements, neighborhood houses, and 
churches where their several activities centered. Twice 
each week they met in one of the church houses to 
discuss the best methods of reaching the unprivileged 
classes in the great city. Once each week, as a group, 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


67 


they made a carefully planned tour of inspection that 
was intended to add to their knowledge of living con¬ 
ditions in the congested areas, the reception of immi¬ 
grants at Ellis Island, the working conditions in great 
industrial plants, the purpose and scope of private 
and civic welfare agencies and other institutions and 
activities related to the religious, social, economic, and 
political life of the city and nation. At their semi¬ 
weekly forums they discussed personal and social prob¬ 
lems encountered morning, afternoon, and evening at 
the centers where they devoted the greater part of 
their time. 

Literally this was a life service club in action, a school 
in which knowledge was gained at many points along 
the royal highway of Christian work. An experiment 
in Christian education, it was the project method raised 
to the dignity of actual accomplishment. One member 
of this group, a boy from Texas, had spent his summer 
vacation the year before as a shovel-man in a construc¬ 
tion gang on the streets of Denver, under the inspira¬ 
tion of a “Y” leader, in order to gain a sympathetic 
understanding of the working conditions and atheistic 
bias of a certain class of laborers. Last summer he 
was found directing the play life of a cosmopolitan 
group of boys in a congested district on the Lower 
East Side, Manhattan. His fine enthusiasm and 
courageous outlook upon the problems that are crowd¬ 
ing in bewildering fashion upon his conscience as an 
American citizen, were refreshing to know. He is one 
of a growing band of young people who have the faith 


68 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


that if they answer Christ's summons to venture with 
him, they will find the proper fields in which to exercise 
that faith effectively. 


Suggestions for Additional Study and Discussion 

Mark 2: 13-17 i 

When speaking of the failure of the churches to keep pace with 
the phenomenal growth of the cities, Josiah Strong, over thirty 
years ago, asked, “What is to be the outcome?” He reminded us 
that “the American-born population, having higher standards of 
living than European peasants, leave the increasingly undesirable 
quarters to the swarming immigrants; and with the departing 
American population goes the Protestant Church membership.” 
In view of the situation as he saw it, Dr. Strong declared that 
one of three things would happen: “Present tendencies (the dis¬ 
proportion between the moral and material development of Ameri¬ 
can cities) will continue until our cities literally are heathenized, 
or their arrested growth will enable the churches to regain lost 
ground, or the churches will awake to their duty and their op¬ 
portunity.” 

“In this work the interdenominational comity and cooperation 
represented in the federation of evangelical churches would secure 
the best covering of the whole field, in the true fraternal and 
Christian spirit. Only a united Protestantism can present such 
a massive front as to impress the world. This work must be large 
enough to be self-respecting. At present it is extremely doubtful 
if there is enough of it to make individual members of the 
churches feel its worth and importance. There should be a mighty 
advance movement, calling for millions of money and thousands 
of missionaries, and reaching into a multitude of places now 
destitute of gospel influences .”—Howard B. Grose. 

1 How Jesus Met Life Questions. Chapters III and XXVII. 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


69 


In 1910 there were 52 cities in the United States with a popu¬ 
lation of more than 100,000. According to the 1920 census 
report there are 73 cities with a population of more than 100,000. 
In 1910, 32 of these 52 cities were located in the industrial 
zone; in 1920, 45 cities of over 100,000 population were located 
in the industrial zone. The industrial zone represents 18 per cent 
of the area of the United States and in 1910 had 56 per cent of 
the total population of the United States and 75 per cent of 
the foreign-born population of the United States. 

The Committee on Cities and Urban Industrial Relations of the 
Home Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home 
Missions raises these questions: “Has Dr. Strong’s prophecy come 
true? Has his confidence in the churches been justified? Have 
the churches awakened to the importance and needs of our great 
cities?” (See 15th Annual Report of above organizations.) 


1. What is your understanding of the term “genuine Ameri¬ 
can”? 

2. From the point of view of the foreigner, what are some of 
America’s chief attractions? 

3. What are some of the characteristics of American state, 
social, and religious life which you desire to see preserved? 

4. What relation has immigration to the problem of the tene¬ 
ment, of city sanitation, of crime, of pauperism, of intemperance, 
and of labor? By relating itself to these problems, does the 
church lose ground spiritually? 

5. Why is it stupid from the standpoint of self-preservation 
alone for “good Americans” to avoid contacts with “foreigners”? 

6. Is the church fundamentally democratic? 

“What would be the result if the doors of the church were 
thrown wide open and the Italian, the Bohemian, the Russian, 
and all the rest, together with their wives and little ones, should 
be permitted to come and worship therein, with the consciousness 
that the church membership would meet them on the platform of 
sympathetic fellowship born of the spirit of Jesus Christ?” 
—Melvin P. Bums. 



70 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


7. Should it be the duty of a church in a congested district to 
stimulate the desire of families to move into better neighborhoods 
and thus contribute to one of the causes of the decline of the 
church life in the downtown districts? 

8. Why should the church go into the tenement districts with 
its rescue work, its recreational and educational programs, and 
its healing ministry when public welfare associations are main¬ 
tained to do this work? 

(The number of young people who, each year, enter the train¬ 
ing schools for church and social workers is considerable. In 
some of the schools practical field work under supervision is 
required as a part of the prescribed course leading to the grant¬ 
ing of a diploma. The students find opportunities under Church 
Boards to engage in work with special age groups, week-day re¬ 
ligious education, case work, or institutional management. Cer¬ 
tain denominations through City Mission Societies and Home 
Mission Boards provide scholarships for young people specially 
fitted for social-religious work.) 

9. Under what conditions is a down-town church justified in 
securing an endowment? What is the danger line here? 

10. How much should one be interested in “getting a crowd”? 

11. What message has the church for children who suffer from 
overcrowding, who are overworked, and whose playground is the 
street? 

12. Should the church be as interested in the prevention of 
individual degeneracy as in the promotion of individual salvation? 
What is the Christian content of the phrase “the larger brother¬ 
liness”? 

13. With gymnasium, showers, swimming pool, play rooms, 
kindergarten, day nursery, community laundry, cooking, millinery, 
and dressmaking classes, club work, and religious educational 
courses, what may still be lacking to make a Christian neigh¬ 
borhood house actually neighborly? 

(Miss Gwyneth Mary Fulcher, of Chicago, after a study of 
thirty-nine religious and non-religious social centers in New York 
City, states that it is her belief that the aim of a social religious 


THE NEW FRONTIER 


71 


center should embody the following points: 1. It should show 
that the purpose of the institution is primarily Christian and 
evangelistic. 2. It should be as definite and complete as possible. 

3. It should indicate adherence to the principle of democracy. 

4. It should indicate a sense of world responsibility. Miss 
Fulcher very properly infers that to carry out the aim, as stated, 
the people of the community should be made to feel that the 
center belonged to them and that this situation cannot be brought 
about unless there be representation in the controlling board of 
the constituents. This conviction led her to a careful considera¬ 
tion of the House Council as organized in several social centers. 
One in point she describes as the most democratically controlled 
center in New York City, as far as she could learn, stating that 
it should not be impossible even for any social-religious center 
conducted under denominational auspices to work out a scheme of 
representation that would be democratic, in keeping with the re¬ 
quirements of the church and providing able leadership. “The 
church will never accomplish its mission in any community,” Miss 
Fulcher states, “until the people of the community feel that it 
belongs to them and is working with them and not for them. 
Only then will the church and the people learn the meaning of 
neighborliness. To love one’s neighbor means also to respect his 
intelligence.”) 

14. Outline a suggested Christian Americanization program in 
a community of your own selection. 

Supplemental Reading 

Brooks, Charles A., Christian Americanization. 1919. Mission¬ 
ary Education Movement, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 
50 cents. 

Douglass, H. Paul., St. Louis: A Social and Religious Survey. 
Published by George H. Doran Co., New York, for the Com¬ 
mittee on Religious and Social Surveys. Price, probably 
$3.00. 

Gavit, John P., Americans by Choice. One of series of 
American Studies edited by Allan T. Burns. 1922. Harper 
& Brothers, New York. $2.00. 


72 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Panunzio, Constantine M., The Soul of an Immigrant. 1921. 
Macmillan Company, New York. $2.00. 

Park, Robert E., and Miller, Herbert A., Old World Traits 
Transplanted. 1921. Harper & Brothers, New York. $2.50. 

Sears, Charles Hatch (Editor), Racial Studies—New Ameri¬ 
cans Series. George H. Doran Co., New York. $1.00 each. 

Czechoslovaks in America. Kenneth D. Miller. 

Italians in America. Philip M. Rose. 

Poles in America. Paul Fox. 

Russians and Ruthenians in America. Jerome Davis. 

Creeks in America. J. P. Xenides. 

Magyars in America. D. A. Souders. 

Shriver, William P., Immigrant Forces. 1913. Missionary 
Education Movement, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 
cents. 

Fellowship Forums on Racial Relationships, published by the Stu¬ 
dent Fellowship Movement, New York. Single copies, com¬ 
plete set, 20 cents. 


Ill 

THE FIRST AMERICANS 

The Spiritual Way of an Indian 

T HE government schools for Indians at Toreva, 
Arizona, and Grand Junction, Colorado, had 
done much for Pliny. Among other things he 
had received a Latin classical name in place of his 
lengthy and equally classical Hopi name. His new 
conception of God differed widely from the Hopi notion 
that a great plumed water snake, inhabiting the under¬ 
world, controlled the rain and the growing crops. The 
young women workers at the mission station at the foot 
of the lofty mesa which was the site of Pliny’s native 
pueblo and a Bible school teacher in Grand Junction 
had exerted an influence in the molding of Pliny’s 
religious life. His knowledge of Jesus as the Savior of 
the world and his assurance of His comradeship gave 
him strength to endure prolonged persecution when he 
returned to the reservation. The story of Pliny’s test¬ 
ing is a story of a fight for religious freedom differing 
only in detail from the known records of the struggles 
and the triumphs of individuals who have opposed tra¬ 
dition and superstition in order to follow truth as they 
conceived the truth. 

Pliny was a conspicuous individual in Michungnavi, 
his native pueblo, by reason of his position as the 

probable future chief of the Flute clan, a Hopi re- 

73 


74 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


ligious order whose rituals and ceremonial dances are 
not as well known to the public as are those of the 
famous Snake clan. He was a handsome, well-built 
youth, quick to learn and thoroughly schooled by his 
parents in the sacred lore of his people. His courteous 
manner in the presence of his elders, his industry, his 
ready smile and genial disposition made him a general 
favorite in Hopiland. He was the joy and hope of his 
family. 

Before leaving the reservation to continue his edu¬ 
cation at Grand Junction, he had started to engage in 
the ceremonies of the Flute clan. His mother was 
priestess of this order and his grandmother’s brother 
was the chief. They had been ready to confer the high¬ 
est honors upon Pliny as soon as he should return from 
the government school at Grand Junction. 

At this time Pliny’s betrothal to Etta, a brilliant 
Hopi girl, was made known. On the way home from 
the distant school they both had attended, the boy and 
girl discussed their mutual desire to join the Indian 
church near their native pueblo. They believed that 
there was not the remotest possibility of either of them 
departing from the “Jesus Road,” yet both realized that 
they were about to have their loyalty to Christ tested 
to the utmost. Just what was in store for them they 
could judge only by a remembrance of the bitter oppo¬ 
sition which their going away had aroused. The Chris¬ 
tian Hopi and the more progressive non-Christian 
members of the tribe valued the educational advan¬ 
tages offered by the government, but the unenlightened 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


75 


Hopi, called “hostiles,” had yielded with sullen reluc¬ 
tance to the new order. Some of these non-progressive 
Indians had used harsh measures to prevent Pliny and 
his companion from leaving the reservation to con¬ 
tinue their studies. 

When it was rumored that Pliny intended to forsake 
the old Hopi way for the “Jesus Way,” consternation 
became general among the boy’s relatives and the Flute 
clansmen. It was inconceivable that Pliny, heir to the 
highest place of preferment in the Flute clan, should 
discard this prospective honor, turn against the gods 
of his fathers, and lose the esteem of relatives and 
friends. No one of influence in the pueblo neglected 
to speak a word to the youth to turn him away from 
the “Jesus Road” which he professed to follow. 

In the meantime, great preparations for the annual 
Snake dance in a neighboring village were under way. 
Already the snake hunts were in progress. The final 
dramatic episode was but a few days away. If Pliny 
attended this ceremony, it would be his announcement 
to all Hopi people that he was still faithful to their 
gods inasmuch as they made no distinction among them¬ 
selves between the attitude of a spectator and one who 
participated in such a dance. A Christian Hopi 
(church member) will not witness a heathen ceremony. 
Unless he makes a complete break with the “old Hopi 
way,” his heathen acquaintances will laugh at his at¬ 
tempts to adopt a Christian mode of living. As the 
Snake dance was to be the most important event of 
the year, held in honor of the rain gods, it was natural 


76 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


that Pliny’s heathen relatives and friends should use 
every argument to induce him to attend it. Finally 
he told his mother that he would go, but he did not tell 
her why he had decided to do so. He came to this con¬ 
clusion only after a long and earnest talk with a 
schoolmate named Paul. 

Pliny suggested that they should witness the Snake 
dance to discover if possible what their people consid¬ 
ered to be a good time. If they should make up their 
minds that the participants and the spectators were 
actually enjoying themselves, he argued, then would 
there be time to decide whether or not they should “go 
the Hopi way.” 

Paul yielded to the wishes of Pliny. He knew the 
heart of his friend and did not doubt his Christian loy¬ 
alty. He also realized that a difficult road lay ahead 
of his friend. 

The day of the Snake dance arrived. On one of the 
terraced roofs overlooking the village plaza, where the 
fantastic heathen ceremony was scheduled to take 
place, Pliny and Paul found standing room. From 
this elevated position they were able to observe every 
detail of the ancient rite. 

When the Snake priests had performed their weird 
ceremonies in obeisance to the great plumed water 
snake that, according to Hopi belief, inhabits the un¬ 
derworld, and to all outward appearances had demon¬ 
strated to the world once more that they were able 
to handle rattle snakes with impunity, inasmuch as 
they were the “beloved brothers” of all serpents, they 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


77 


carried their “little brothers” to the rocks at the foot 
of the mesa so that the crawling messengers might 
hurry with many Hopi prayers to the “Great Spirit.” 
Altogether it was an impressive exhibition of primi¬ 
tive pagan faith, and similar demonstrations have 
been not without interest to anthropologists. But 
Pliny and Paul were not convinced. 

Nothing could shake Pliny’s resolve to “go in the 
Jesus Road,” and he made his plans with the resident 
women missionaries that on a subsequent Sunday 
morning he would go to Kearns Canon, distant eighteen 
miles, and be baptized by a missionary to the Navajo, 
who was the nearest ordained minister, and thereby 
enter into complete fellowship with the church at 
Second Mesa. Etta, his fiancee, also planned to be 
baptized at this time and place. 

Pliny kept his plan a secret from the pueblo dwellers, 
fearing opposition. On the Saturday night prior to 
the day set for the baptisms, he rode his pony to the 
government school at the foot of Second Mesa. Here 
he was taken in for the night by the principal who was 
a real champion of religious liberty and valued highly 
the service the missionaries were rendering the Indians 
of the reservation. 

Pliny was up at daybreak to prepare for his journey 
to Kearns Canon. As he skirted the southern shoulder 
of the great Corn Rock below the lofty mesa, he met 
his cousin, an Indian older than himself and a member 
of a group on Second Mesa actively antagonistic to all 
progressive movements in any way affecting adversely 


78 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


the old established order, whether the innovations re¬ 
lated to religion, education, or sanitation. Manuel will 
serve as a name to identify him. He had ridden down 
the trail from the lofty pueblos to intercept his genial 
cousin, Pliny, and his first act was to seize Pliny’s 
bridle rein and lead the latter’s pony off the trail. 

Pliny protested, but made no physical resistance. 
Manuel was a powerful Indian and was determined that 
day to have his way. When he had conducted his young 
cousin far out upon the desert where no trail led, he 
dismounted and commanded Pliny to do the same. A 
council began which lasted all day, Manuel doing most 
of the talking. And Manuel was a skilful talker. He 
used every method of persuasion at his command, plead¬ 
ing loyalty to Hopi traditions, flattering, bribing, ridi¬ 
culing, threatening. Among other inducements he men¬ 
tioned the names of four of the most attractive girls 
on Second Mesa, declaring that should Pliny remain in 
the old Hopi way, he could marry his pick of the four 
or any other maiden of his choice, discarding Etta, who 
was determined to join those despised Christians who 
left the pueblos to make homes near the mission station 
at the foot of the mesa. 

Pliny’s reply to all of Manuel’s threats w r as a stoical 
silence; the most extravagant offer of reward for fidel¬ 
ity to Hopi traditions was declined. Pliny did not wish 
to excite Manuel’s anger. It is the way of an Indian to 
sit in respectful silence in the presence of older men. 
Pliny was a good Indian. 

After sundown the two rode back to the pueblo and 



JSSIAN FORUM IN ONE OF THE NEW YORK CITY CHURCHES THAT PLACES ITS 
RESOURCES AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE DENSE FOREIGN-SPEAKING POPULATION AT 
ITS DOORS. 














THE QUIET HOUR WITH A HOME MISSION WORKER IN AN OREGON 

lumbermen’s “GOSPEL HUT.” 

A CLASS IN ENGLISH FOR FOREIGNERS AT A NEW HAVEN PLANT, 
TAUGHT BY A YALE STUDENT UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE Y.M.C.A. 





THE FIRST AMERICANS 


79 


as they passed the chapel at the mission station Manuel 
reminded Pliny that he had not been baptized. The 
latter said that he could wait. 

Pliny had a stout heart, and Manuel knew that he 
meant what he said. Consequently, the youth was held 
a prisoner in one of his mother’s rooms, the leading 
men of the pueblo visiting him constantly in the hope 
of persuading him to abandon the “Jesus Road.” They 
told him that Etta also was imprisoned, and later 
Etta’s uncle visited Pliny to tell him that Etta had 
forsaken the “Jesus Road” and would be glad to hear 
that he had done the same. Pliny did not believe the 
lie. He managed to get word to his betrothed. 
Secretly they planned for their baptism. 

The following Sunday morning Pliny escaped to the 
desert. Catching one of his uncle’s ponies, he rode 
it bareback to a certain dry wash where he found his 
saddle and “Sunday best” clothes hidden by a friend at 
his direction. He rode swiftly across the desert to 
Kearns Canon w T here he found Etta and several other 
converts at the home of the missionary pastor. All 
were baptized amid great rejoicing. The following 
morning Pliny rode up the trail leading to his native 
pueblo to announce to his family that he had been to 
Kearns Canon where a Christian missionary had bap¬ 
tized him. His mother received the news quietly—too 
quietly, Pliny thought—and set out some food for him. 

As a matter of fact, the news of his baptism had pre^ 
ceded him. While he was eating, Manuel and some of 
the chief men of the village entered the room. One of 


80 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


the men carried a heavy, rawhide whip and without 
warning began lashing Pliny across the back. The boy 
bore the pain of it as long as he was able and then 
sprang toward his tormentor and seized the whip. 
Just then another village bully stepped in. He was 
followed by Etta’s uncle and the old chief of the vil¬ 
lage. All were in a sullen mood. One man had raised 
a rifle to his shoulder. There was general agreement 
that Pliny should be killed to stop the movement away 
from the old Hopi way. There was one voice particu¬ 
larly insistent. 

The man with the gun hesitated. He had expected to 
see Pliny wilt at once. The boy was defying his tor¬ 
mentors. The men looked at each other as if seeking 
other counsel. At that moment a female voice was 
heard. One of the women missionaries, hearing of 
the trouble, had ridden her pony up the trail and had 
dismounted at the foot of the ladder leading to the 
abode owned by Pliny’s mother. 

Two men stepped out and threw- the ladder to the 
ground. The missionary mounted her pony and rode 
down the narrow trail to the government school to 
summon help. An Indian officer w r as sent to the 
pueblo, and wffien he entered the house by a rear en¬ 
trance familiar to him, all but two men and Pliny van¬ 
ished. 

But Pliny’s uncle did not retreat at sight of the 
badge of a United States deputy marshal. The old man 
had one more arrow in his shaft. He issued an ulti¬ 
matum that involved Pliny’s means of livelihood. The 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


81 


boy had been cultivating his uncle’s farm, but was now 
told that he could do so no longer. 

Pliny left the pueblo and joined the colony of Hopi 
Christians at the foot of the mesa. Shortly thereafter 
a wedding occurred that was marked by a great dinner 
prepared by the Hopi Christians at the mission. 

Pliny rode forth and found tillable land twelve miles 
from Second Mesa. Today his bungalow may be seen 
near the mission chapel. He owns horses and a few 
cattle. His crops are good when the season is favor¬ 
able. Etta and Pliny, happy with their children, faith¬ 
ful in their church life, do not forget to pray for those 
who are still to be led into the “Jesus Road.” 

Not long ago Pliny and Etta lost their first-born. 
This sudden loss became the occasion for another kind 
of persecution. The non-Christians chided the bereaved 
parents, boasting that the Hopi gods were obtaining 
revenge. At the funeral of the child Pliny answered 
these bitter sallies by rising from his seat to voice a 
beautiful tribute to the loving care granted him by 
the Heavenly Father whose own He had taken to Him¬ 
self in glory. Yet for many days the parents’ grief 
was pitiable to see. 

Pliny considered it a sin to mourn. He asked the 
Christians to pray for him that he might not be sad 
because of the loss of “Brother boy.” At length, the 
hymnology of the Hopi congregations in all parts of 
the reservation began to be enriched by Pliny’s com¬ 
positions as gradually he emerged from his night of 
despair. 


82 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Hitting a Race Problem on Four Sides 

The foregoing narrative, written after personal in¬ 
terviews with Pliny, other Christian Indians, and with 
missionaries on the Hopi Reservation, while excep¬ 
tional in many respects, more or less faithfully por¬ 
trays the heart-history of an Indian who has caught 
the vision of an undying comradeship with Jesus. A 
personal experience of the Savior’s transforming love 
is held vital in the religious development of Indian 
communities. The missionaries, furthermore, are com¬ 
mitted to a broad social-religious program adapted to 
the community needs of individual tribes. They are in 
sympathy with all approved measures for the solution 
of the social and economic problems of the Indians and 
heartily cooperate with government, state, and local 
agencies to further these measures. 

The prescribed limits of this volume forbid a presen¬ 
tation of more than one distinctive contribution to the 
social order by governmental and missionary agencies 
on Indian mission fields . 1 A recently made study of 
the social, economic and religious life of several bands 
of Indians of mixed origin in the Sierra-Nevada Moun¬ 
tains enables the writer to bring to the discussion data 
gathered first-hand. The work on this comparatively 
new field, in bringing order out of old pagan customs 
and modifying conditions occasioned by the equally 

1 See The Red Man in the United States. A study made under 
the direction of G. E. E. Lindquist for the Committee on Social 
and Religious Surveys. Published by George H. Doran Company, 
New York. 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


83 


pagan greed of the white man, may be considered fairly 
typical. Yet to tell the complete story of the trans¬ 
formation of even one band of these neglected Indians 
w r ould require many pages. While centering attention 
temporarily upon certain bands of neglected Indians 
in California, the w r riter is not unmindful of the fact 
that there are twenty different boards of Protestant 
Christian denominations and five societies in addition 
to the Roman Catholic Church that maintain 597 mis¬ 
sion stations and churches for Indians with 428 pastors 
and missionaries. The societies referred to are the 
Young Men’s Christian Association, the Young 
Women’s Christian Association, the Indian Rights’ 
Association, the National Indian Association, and the 
John Eliot Society. Christianity now numbers 80,000 
Protestant and 65,000 Roman Catholic Indian ad¬ 
herents, with 46,000 others on forty reservations un¬ 
touched in any appreciable way by the church. 

<, The present story should begin in the dim past when 
the Spaniards discovered this continent, and then it 
should be carried forward through the Spanish convert 
hunts and the Mexican persecutions to the time when 
the gold camps were established in 1849 and onward. 

In 1851 and 1852 treaties were made with the Cali¬ 
fornia tribes. The Indians were interfering with the 
white man’s unjust acquisition of their rich valley 
lands following the rush for gold. Congress did not 
ratify these treaties which were signed by 400 Indian 
chiefs. The swift settlement of the country was marked 
everywhere by a heartless treatment of the Indians, 


84 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


who were helpless in the face of the aggressive and re¬ 
sourceful whites. Ignorant of their rights in nearly 
every case and powerless to hold what no government, 
either county, state, or national, cared whether they 
held or not, the Indians w r ere driven to the remote 
canons of the Sierras. 

These California bands of Indians were not the 
accepted wards of either the United States or Cali¬ 
fornia. Like wild creatures of mountain and forest, 
they haunted the hidden places, their food consisting 
of acorns, insects, roots and herbs, and such game and 
fish as could be procured. They made their homes in 
huts or caves as fortune decreed. They were shunned 
almost completely by the whites when not being ex¬ 
ploited by unscrupulous traders and bootleggers. 

The industrial conditions among the Californian In¬ 
dians before the coming of the missionaries in the first 
decade of the twentieth century were extremely un¬ 
favorable. They were looked upon as inferior help to 
be used only when better could not be obtained. So 
degraded were they that the majority of them yielded 
to their craving for whiskey after working a few days, 
the bootlegger and the gambler gathering in their earn¬ 
ings. Their drunken orgies frequently resulted in 
bloody frays, and the nights were made horrible by 
the barbarous chants of the participants in their weird 
gambling games. After being driven from their hunt¬ 
ing, fishing, and fruit grounds, these waifs of the 
Sierras had nothing to show for their previous contacts 
with the white man except a knowledge of the white 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


85 


man’s vices and a craving for his red liquor, handicaps 
to be added to the evil traits and practices peculiarly 
tribal in their viciousness and destroying power. 
Driven to abject poverty by the greed of the white man, 
they were exploited continually by their own medicine 
men, who used the weapons of fear and superstition to 
lead them at will. Frequent fandangos, cry dances for 
the dead, and sorceries for the living made fat living 
for these avaricious charlatans and kept the Indians 
in savagery and hopeless moral destitution. There 
were no marriages; parents sold their daughters for 
money or commodities. The round-houses owned by 
the medicine men were the scenes of heathen cere¬ 
monies and powwows, both hideous and degrading. 

There was no solidarity of race consciousness or 
tribal community interests binding the scattered bands 
together in the promotion of their common welfare. 
The Indian dialect varying in the different localities 
intensified the isolation of the separate bands. Feuds 
between bands existed, the medicine men encouraging 
murder and theft when their own diabolical purposes 
could be furthered by this means. Mysterious killings 
followed opposition to the selfish enterprises of the 
medicine men. Vicious practices destructive of do¬ 
mestic felicity attended the frequent drinking and 
gambling affairs promoted by the medicine men. The 
fear of the medicine men’s power which gripped this 
childlike people was pathetic indeed before the gospel 
truth, presented in an understandable way by the mis¬ 
sionaries, opened their eyes to the raw foolishness of 


86 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


these impostors. Later the same Indians helped to 
drive out of the country some of the pests who had led 
them in savagery. 

One of the first missionaries to go into the Sierras 
east of the San Joaquin Valley was Mrs. Harriet M. 
Gilchrist, who opened a mission at North Fork. Here 
she found the Indians in the neighboring canons and 
coves living wretchedly, like animals in the wild. For 
the most part their homes were “wickiups,” made of 
poles enclosing a space ten feet in diameter and cov¬ 
ered with grass, brush, and discarded tin oil cans bat¬ 
tered out. In the tops of these abodes holes were left 
to permit the escape of smoke. Through the low doors 
one had to stoop to pass. Fires were built in the 
middle of the room. About the circle there were litters 
of grass and leaves upon which to sit and eat. Rags 
were used as covering for the night. Blankets and skins 
were scarce. 

> The Indians resented the coming of Mrs. Gilchrist 
because their traditions yielded them nothing upon 
which to build confidence in the motives of this par¬ 
ticular white woman. She w T as of a race that had 
robbed their fathers of the land. They realized that 
they still were the prey of the white wolves who sold 
them bootleg whiskey and took their land. 

This courageous woman had been a gospel messenger 
to the refugee Sioux in Canada, but after a few nights 
spent in this remote settlement in the Sierras, she knew 
fear for the first time. More than once in the dead of 
night drunken groups of Indian men and women sur- 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


87 


rounded her cabin and called upon her to come out. In 
their drunkenness they knifed each other, but for some 
reason refrained from breaking into the white woman’s 
home. She secured extra bolts for her doors and later 
won the friendly regard of her tormentors by sheer 
Christian grace and grit. She fought their battles 
against the bootleggers and against the white land- 
hogs who were dispossessing the Indians of the little 
land they still occupied. 

Miss Ida M. Schofield, a pioneer missionary in an¬ 
other part of the Sierras, began her journeys on foot 
and by wagon over the long, winding trails that led to 
the secluded places where the Auberry Indians lived 
in their squalid huts. Six months later Miss Emma C. 
Christensen, a girl of twenty-one, joined her. They 
lived in a tent during the first months of their labors, 
until home mission agencies provided them with a 
house; and they began a school for the Indian children 
in a tent. Within five years the forces were augmented 
by the coming of Rev. J. G. Brendel, a pastor-at-large 
to the Indians in the territory assigned to him. Other 
women missionaries later were appointed to this fruit¬ 
ful field of service. In heartiest accord, these mission¬ 
aries representing different Boards planned the work 
in behalf of all neglected Indians within their vast 
territory. The preaching at first w r as done in the open, 
because there were no chapels. Frequent councils of 
the leading men of the various bands were called. Their 
full agreement to all new measures was secured before 
definite steps were taken to carry out any plan. Noth- 


88 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


ing was forced upon the Indians. Every procedure was 
governed by the rule of the majority. 

Very early in their work the missionaries decided 
upon a definite goal, four-fold in character, and its 
attainment constitutes one of the high points in the 
history of Indian missions, revealing the power of the 
gospel when Christian workers utilize their opportuni¬ 
ties with a well-rounded program. They sought the 
cooperation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and 
the local authorities. The goal, briefly stated, included: 

(1) An allotment of land for every Indian family on 
which to build a home. 

(2) A common school education for every Indian 
child. 

(3) Employment for every able-bodied Indian man 
or woman in the vineyards and orchards of the San 
Joaquin Valley. 

(4) A chapel for every Indian settlement. 

The destitute condition of the Cold Springs Indians 
before the coming of the missionaries may be cited as 
representative. This band lived in huts in remote 
canons and coves above Burrough Valley in Fresno 
County, California. It numbered one hundred and 
nineteen men, women, and children, including twenty- 
seven children of school age. It was impossible to get 
to their habitations by wagon. They were scattered 
over a wide territory. Not more than a dozen families 
raised anything on their small land allotments. Their 
living depended entirely upon the men finding work 
in the settlements. A survey was made by Mr. Brendel, 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


89 


who opened a mission for these Indians following the 
preliminary work of the women missionaries. He de¬ 
scribed the conditions minutely in letters sent to the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Finally a tract of land was 
set aside by the Government, and each family was given 
a five-acre allotment upon which to build a home. A 
school was established on this miniature reservation, 
a chapel was built near by, the Indian families moved 
down from the mountains and built homes close to the 
school and nearer the ranches where employment could 
be secured. 

The missionaries and co-laborers have addressed 
themselves to the industrial situation of the California 
Indians in a systematic way. By organizing the vari¬ 
ous bands into camps over which Indian leaders are 
appointed, they have made the Indians responsible for 
the results. At first the fruit men were reluctant about 
hiring the Indians. One grape-grower who had eight 
hundred acres of vines the first year refused to have 
anything to do with “those lazy, drunken, good-for- 
nothing Digger Indians.” He tried one or two, never¬ 
theless, and the next year a few more. The third year 
he came to Mr. Brendel and said, “Can you get me 
enough Indians of your kind to harvest my whole crop? 
I have tried laborers from every nationality on the 
globe, but these Christian Indians are the best workers 
I ever had.” 

For several years past no trouble has been experi¬ 
enced in securing employment for all the Indians who 
come down from the mountains. The towns and vil- 


90 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


lages in the fruit belt furnish camping sites to the In¬ 
dians en route to and from the ranches. As they come 
down from the mountains, they are thus assured of a 
real place to stay on the way to work. This has added 
to the success of the work. 

An interesting by-product of the intensive work for 
California Indians w T as the change in the social and 
religious life of the white mountaineers. After the 
Indians secured church buildings, the mountaineers ap¬ 
plied to the missionaries for help in obtaining churches. 
They were quite sure that a miracle had been performed 
in behalf of a hopeless class of people. In this way the 
Indians helped to open Christian work for the de¬ 
scendants of those who had robbed their fathers of the 
land.' 

Cooperation of Federal and Religious Agencies on 

Indian Fields 

The fine spirit of fellowship that has been fostered 
by the representatives of all saving agencies on Indian 
fields in the promotion of wholesome home surround¬ 
ings, thrift, citizenship, and other desirable conditions 
of community life on Indian reservations has been a 
telling factor in the development of the work. 

Health supervisors, school and agency physicians, 
field matrons, nurses and traveling dentists have been 
provided under the administration of the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs to further the physical welfare of the 
Indians. In the warfare against disease, special atten- 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


91 


tion is paid to the care of infants and the treatment of 
tuberculosis and trachoma. 

A continuous Better Babies Campaign has been car¬ 
ried on by the Indian service, which has been produc¬ 
tive of substantial and lasting benefit. When it was 
inaugurated, Hon. Cato Sells, Ex-Commissioner of In¬ 
dian Affairs, predicted that it would have the “quick¬ 
ened cooperation of all denominational agencies, re¬ 
ligious missionaries, and mission schools having special 
interest in the Indians’ spiritual welfare and whose 
priceless fervor, have done so much for the red man.” 
The Ex-Commissioner’s prediction became an actuality. 
Federal and missionary workers on Indian fields united 
in an “irresistible union of effort” to bring health out 
of disease and squalor. 

Familiarity with the home conditions that exist in 
many Indian settlements robs one of surprise that 
an Indian baby very early should contract tuberculosis, 
trachoma, or one or several of many forms of gastro¬ 
intestinal disturbances common among members of cer¬ 
tain tribes. 

A field matron employed by the Government in Ari¬ 
zona told the writer that her work in the Indian home 
is greatly facilitated when the parents are Christians. 
In most cases the Christian families withdraw from 
the unsanitary pueblos and build good houses w r ith a 
sufficient number of windows to admit the sunlight, 
with more suitable places to put babies than on in¬ 
fected floors. The stories which the missionaries tell 
concerning the fight against Spanish influenza and 


92 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


typhus are fairly indicative of the desire on the part 
of the missionary forces to cooperate with the United 
States Government in the work of health improvement 
among the Indians. Hospitals, community laundries, 
and bath houses are maintained by Christian agencies 
on several Indian reservations. 

At the request of H. B. Peairs, Chief Supervisor of 
Indian Education, Miss Ella Deloria, a young Sioux 
Indian and a trained physical director under appoint¬ 
ment by the National Board of the Young Women’s 
Christian Association, is directing a program of Health 
Education for Indian girls at Haskell Institute, which 
is showing to all the interrelation of the physical, 
recreational, and spiritual and is giving the girls an 
understanding of the abundant life which is needed in 
schools and on reservations. Ultimately a group of 
young Indian women will be trained for this type of 
service. 

A recent statement of the Hon. Charles H. Burke, 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, applies here: 

“The progress that has been made in the civilization 
of the Indians and their present development would 
have been impossible if it had not been for the mission¬ 
aries who were the pioneers in laying the foundations 
for the religious and educational welfare of these 
people, and it is mv hope that we may have the assist¬ 
ance and cooperation of all missionary societies in our 
endeavor to hasten the time when all the Indians in 
the country may become respectable, self-supporting, 
Christian Indians.” 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


93 


Indians are entitled to a square deal. They were 
here first. Others took away their land, made one-sided 
treaties, repudiated the treaties, sold them fire water, 
crowded them upon reservations, denied large numbers 
of their children an education, and made most of them 
dependent. They were once as self-reliant as any 
people on earth. Yet they are not dying off, in spite of 
their unnatural environment, abnormal habits forced 
upon them by contacts with white men, and the tre¬ 
mendous odds, the fruits of prejudice, against which 
this people still must contend. On the contrary, the 
Indian population of the country is increasing and has 
been for the past thirty years. 

The Indian population of the United States, exclusive 
of Alaska and including freedmen and intermarried 
whites in Oklahoma, is 340,917. Oklahoma, with 
119,158 Indians, contains over one third of those enum¬ 
erated in the grand total; Arizona has 43,327, South 
Dakota 23,448, New Mexico 21,569, Minnesota 13,326, 
Montana 12,648, North Carolina 11,853, California 
11,091, Nevada 10,952, Washington 10,920, Wisconsin 
10,498, North Dakota 9,466, Michigan 7,628, Oregon 
6,677, New York 6,078, Idaho 4,053, Nebraska 2,526, 
Texas 2,110, Wyoming 1,783, Utah 1,580 and Kansas 
1,496. There are 9,150 living east of the Mississippi 
River in states not listed above. 1 

i Figures compiled by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 
fiscal year ended June 30, 1922, from reports of Indian school 
superintendents, supplemented by information from the 1920 
census for localities in which no Indian office representative is 
located. 


94 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


The creditable service rendered by the men who have 
been in control of the Federal Office of Indian Affairs 
during the last three decades has only in part atoned 
for the shameless treatment of the red men during the 
long years that preceded this period. No complete ac¬ 
count can be made here of the faithful work of field 
superintendents, teachers, physicians, industrial work¬ 
ers and others under government employ who have 
carried out the instructions of the Federal Office on 
their obscure Indian fields. The helpful attitude of 
the government toward missionary work has been a 
source of satisfaction and encouragement for those 
who have represented Christian agencies on Indian 
mission fields. This missionary program through the 
years has been a varied one and adapted to the several 
needs of the tribes that have been touched by these 
ministries, whether in New York State, wdiere “the In¬ 
dian’s material tastes are entirely white American” 1 
and where few Indians now live exclusively by Indian 
pursuits, in Arizona where the old tribal life prevails 
with slight modification, or in Oklahoma among the 
“civilized tribes” with their productive acres, oil wells, 
bank accounts, schools, and independent churches. 

Christian agencies at work on Indian fields, after 
their several conferences, have arrived at definite con¬ 
clusions relating to a “Common Program of Advance.” 
This program includes the following objectives: 2 

1 Parker and Lindquist, The Iroquois in New York. 

2 For a more extended discussion of these objectives see The 
Red Man in the United States, Chapter XV, upon which the author 
has largely drawn for these recommendations- 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


95 


Evangelization. The personal friendship between 
Christian leaders and individual Indians is the first 
step in the development of a consciousness of the com¬ 
radeship of Jesus and a realization of the love of a 
personal God. While the devotion of the missionaries 
appointed to the different fields is recognized as essen¬ 
tial, the active interest of Christian neighbors among 
the white settlers in Indian communities is solicited in 
the promotion of the speedy evangelization of non- 
Christian tribes and portions of tribes . 1 

Applied Social Christianity. Work among the In¬ 
dians has come to be viewed as a special rural social- 
religious enterprise, and adaptations of the approved 
rural church programs are recommended for Indian 
communities. The principles of the modern program 
of the rural church may embrace activities relating, 
not only to the Indian’s spiritual well-being, but to his 
planting and his harvesting, his bodily health, and his 
social and recreational life. 

Correlation op Religious Effort. Greatly to be de¬ 
sired is the development of a spirit within the Indian 
churches from which will emerge a more fruitful fel¬ 
lowship with other churches, both Indian and white. 
The need not only for reservation-wide, but for inter¬ 
reservation religious cooperation is recognized. 

Development of Trained Native Leadership. 
Workers on Indian mission fields are conscious of the 

i See My Neighbor, the American Indian, by Bruce Kinney. 
Leaflet published by the Home Missions Council and the Council 
of Women for Home Missions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 


96 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


necessity of encouraging Indian young people to be¬ 
come trained physically, mentally, and spiritually to 
accept places of responsibility and service in behalf of 
their people. Changed conditions have brought about 
a demand for a broad and liberal education for a class 
of native leaders or pastors who will not supersede the 
consecrated and greatly esteemed men whose influence 
within their tribes is immeasurable, but who will be 
able to gain the respect of the older Indians as well 
as a following among the young people whose horizons 
have been broadened by years spent in government and 
mission schools. To this end it is urged that scholar¬ 
ships be provided Indian young men and women to 
attend schools and colleges attended by white young 
people, that the Home Mission Boards cooperate in the 
appointment of religious work directors in non-reserva¬ 
tion schools, and that provision be made for a religious 
literature adapted to the various stages of development 
of the Indian mind. 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


97 


Suggestions for Additional Study and Discussion 

Luke 10:25-37 1 

As to means of support and advancement in education and 
citizenship, the following data is of interest: 133,193 speak Eng¬ 
lish; 91,331 read and write; 83,462 are citizens; 196,841 wear 
citizen’s clothing. Out of 62,138 adult men enumerated, 40,962 
were engaged in farming, 44,847 raised stock, 26,949 were en¬ 
gaged in industries other than these two occupations. The na¬ 
tive arts and crafts do not occupy as large a place in the 
material advancement of the Indians as tourists and those hav¬ 
ing a sentimental interest in the Indians would imagine. The 
enumeration of the native occupational life of the Indians, how¬ 
ever, is worth noting as summarized in the following figures: 

There are 3,935 engaged in basket making; 2,755 in bead-work; 
5,557 in blanket weaving; 2,144 in fishing; 1,350 in gathering wild 
rice; 3,559 in w r ood cutting; 566 in making pottery; 105 in silver- 
smithing, and 212 in lace making. The output of Indian blankets 
during the past year, 1920, netted $710,175, and that of basketry, 
$83,918. Only 3,049 able-bodied Indians received rations in 1920, 
as compared with 5,175 similarly aided in 1912. The educational 
record was tabulated from a total enumeration of 308,539 popu¬ 
lation. It showed: 82,856 children eligible for school attendance; 
61,800 children in school; 21,056 children not in any school. Of 
the last number, 6,053 were Navajos, 926 Papagoes of Arizona, 
899 White Earth Chippewas of Minnesota, 775 Turtle Mountain 
Indians of North Dakota, and 602 Oneidas and Chippewas of 
Wisconsin.—Thomas C. Moffett in The Red Man in Church and 
State, p. 5. 

Various causes operative in the “broadening of the Indian’s 
horizon and the enlarging of his civic responsibilities” have been 
enumerated by the Committee of Indian Missions, of the Home 

l How Jesus Met Life Questions. Chapter X. 


98 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Missions. 
Briefly, they are: (1) The Government’s policy in putting the 
Indian on an equal citizenship basis with the white man as early 
and as speedily as expediency warrants; (2) the public day 
school in which white and red children meet on common grounds 
in place of the reservation schools; (3) the franchise in the hand 
of the Indian freeing him from the humiliating sense of alienation 
in his own land; (4) the object lesson of trained leadership pre¬ 
sented to ten thousand Indian young men who rendered creditable 
service in the United States army and navy during the World 
War. 

1. What effect should travel and fellowship have upon tribal¬ 
mindedness as against nation-mindedness and world-mindedness? 

2. Why should the changing conditions mentioned above lead 
the Indian to appraise more fairly “the white man’s religion”? 

3. In order to evangelize the Indian, why is it not a good policy 
to keep him in ignorance of world history? 

4. What evidence have you that a majority of Indian graduates 
“go back to the blanket”? 

(The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in his Annual Report for 
1920 stated that “any assumption that more than a negligible 
percentage of Indian graduates are non-progressive is unwar¬ 
ranted.”) 

5. Why is an educated Indian who is actively hostile to 
progressive movements in behalf of his race more of a social 
liability than an uneducated Indian? 

6. What are some of the indications that the fallacy, “The 
only good Indian is a dead Indian,” is still operative? 

7. Why is an extensive and intensive work of evangelism among 
Indians opportune at the present time? 


THE FIRST AMERICANS 


99 


Supplemental Reading 

Moffett, Thomas C., The American Indian on the New Trail. 
1914. Missionary Education Movement, New York. Cloth, 
75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Parker, Arthur C., and Lindquist, G. E. E., The Indians of 
Neic York State. 1922. Home Missions Council, 156 Fifth 
Avenue, New York. 10 cents. 

The Red Man in the United States. An intimate study of the 
Social, Economic, and Religious Life of the American Indian, 
made under the direction of G. E. E. Lindquist, with a fore¬ 
word by Hon. Charles H. Burke, Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs. Manuscript prepared by Stanley Went. 1923. 
Published by George H. Doran Company, New York, for the 
Committee on Religious and Social Surveys. $3.50. 

Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of 
the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1922. Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. 


> * 3 
t 3 
> * > 


IV 

THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 

A Negro’s War on Jimtown 

W INTERS, a Negro youth in the Southland, 
had heard the call of the North. Upon the 
the horizon of his immediate future loomed 
Pittsburgh as the ready cash of his dreams. He had 
spent a summer there and had been successful, saving 
enough money to carry him through an extra course of 
study in a Southern mission school. The busy steel 
district retained its lure for him. He yearned to get 
back into its turmoil and win for himself a sure place 
and a permanent income. But one April day the presi¬ 
dent of the college called him into the college library 
and portrayed for him the need for Negro young men 
and women of vision and initiative who would remain 
in the South to lose themselves in order that whole 
communities might be saved. 

Winters accepted this counsel and erased Pittsburgh 
from life’s chart. He passed the examination for a first 
grade teacher’s certificate. His first school was secured 
in a Negro settlement called Jamestown on the county 
map. The chairman of the school board called the 
place an assortment of names. It was known locally as 
Jimtown. One of Winters’ friends defined it as a “hell¬ 
hole.” When the young Negro saw the entire adult 

male population of the place repair to the cedar brakes 

loo 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


101 


on Sunday morning to pass the day gambling, he be¬ 
lieved that Jimtown deserved its reputation. There 
was no church in the neighborhood; the day school had 
been dormant two years. 

Winters did not despair of an ultimate change. At 
the end of the first week he organized a Sunday school 
in the disreputable little shack which housed the day 
school. He gave all the young people tasks in the Sun¬ 
day school. Within a year a new schoolhouse was 
built, and about it Winters began to work out some 
ideas concerning the community beautiful which he 
had gained at the mission school. He planted trees in 
the schoolyard and laid out flower gardens and taught 
the children how to plant and care for a variety of 
blossoming plants. In time the homes reflected this 
new spirit. Barren door-yards became garden plots. 
Entertainments of a wholesome character, held in the 
schoolhouse, took the place of Sandy Mason’s boister¬ 
ous dances w T here whiskey flowed freely and which in¬ 
variably ended with drunken brawls after midnight. 
The teacher became preacher, and a religious awaken¬ 
ing led to the formation of a church. In time a church 
edifice was erected and a minister secured to hold ser¬ 
vices regularly. By his knowledge of the law pertain¬ 
ing to contracts, wills, deeds and mortgages, Winters 
was able to prevent the exploitation of his school pa¬ 
trons by unscrupulous loan sharks, land owners and 
their agents. Offers of other schools came to him, all 
of which he declined. He became a neighborhood insti¬ 
tution, and Jimtown became Jamestown. 


102 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


After twenty years of continuous service as the school 
teacher in Jamestown, an invitation was received by 
Winters to join the faculty of the college where he had 
secured his education. He was told that a depart¬ 
ment of practical husbandry was to be organized and 
that he had been selected to become the first member of 
its teaching staff. His final leave-taking was a sad 
event in Jamestown. 

Winters’ twentieth year as teacher at his Alma Mater 
is drawing to a close. He is enshrined in the grateful 
memory of hundreds of alumni, and his work is not yet 
done. Always in his planning and his teaching he keeps 
in mind the communities from which come the boys and 
girls in his classes. During eighteen years he was the 
only regular colored attendant at the meetings of the 
Farmers’ Institute (white) of the county in which he 
resides. At first he was given a cool reception at these 
meetings, but now, for many years, the white farmers 
have been glad to discuss with him all matters pertain¬ 
ing to crops and marketing. With them he stands upon 
a common platform where there is no drawing of the 
color line and where genuine democracy finds expres¬ 
sion in honest toil and community service. His worth 
to the state has been recognized. Farmers’ week at 
the State University finds him among the most inter¬ 
ested delegates, with equal privileges and bringing his 
own contribution to the forums. It was at this annual 
affair that he discussed some far-reaching plans with 
one of the leading professors in the University. These 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


103 


plans had to do with the welfare of colored farmers 
who lived in the backward settlements of the state. 

A few weeks later the first Farmers’ Short Course for 
Negroes in this state was made possible by the initiative 
of an assistant-supervisor of vocational agriculture 
(white) and Winters, the colored teacher in the college 
maintained by home mission agencies. Twenty-five 
miles from this college is Johnsontown, the settlement 
where the institute was held. The assistant-supervisor 
of vocational agriculture represented the state agencies 
including the University. The two instructors by pre¬ 
arrangement traveled to a certain railroad point and 
there w^ere met by a delegation of colored farmers who 
conveyed them in their own vehicles to Johnsontown. 
The Negroes of the entire neighborhood turned out to 
greet their visitors. When the first meeting of what 
later developed into a Farmers’ Club was called to 
order, the way the farmers felt about the movement 
in their behalf was well expressed by an old Negro 
of giant dimensions, who rose to his feet and said, “Let 
us pray.” 

On the return trip to the railroad a stop was made 
at the farm owned by a young Negro who had attended 
the organization meeting. The latter had been talking 
enthusiastically to the writer of the Farmers’ Short 
Course. One of his remarks will remain in memory. 

“They done brought the white man’s university to 
our own doorways.” 

The Farmers’ Short Course, consisting of sixteen 


104 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


lessons in practical agriculture, was the definite result 
of the calling together of the Negro farmers of John- 
sontown. Winters pledged his assistance throughout 
the course, and Mr. Anderson, the white professor, 
guaranteed a certain number of speakers from the State 
University. Subsequently the writer learned that the 
classes were attended by an increasing number of 
farmers until they were concluded. Such subjects as 
alfalfa, clovers, the pruning and spraying of orchards, 
grape culture, soil improvement, the dairy herd, milk, 
butter, poultry and swine were discussed. It was 
planned that in later courses subjects more intimately 
concerned with the home and community life would be 
taken up. The women of the neighborhood attended 
all the classes mentioned above. 

In November, 1922, Winters was one of the leaders in 
the formation of the first Country Life Conference for 
Negroes in his state. Johnsontown was selected as the 
place of meeting, and the colored people came in from 
many surrounding points. The program was in charge 
of the director of agriculture extension of the State 
University and associated with him was a specialist in 
rural organization from a denominational college and 
the supervisor of “Four H. Clubs” in the state. It is 
of special interest to note that Johnsontown, where 
the Farmers’ Short Course had been held the year be¬ 
fore, scored 664 out of a possible score of 1,000 points 
in the grading of community work. It should also be 
kept in mind that in this community live a number of 
graduates from Negro schools of good standing. The 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 105 

fiest result of the conference was the kindling of a de¬ 
termination on the part of the people to work during 
1923 to make their rural communities even better 
places in which to live. The scoring for community 
work is based on a given number of points for com¬ 
munity spirit, citizenship, recreation, health, homes, 
schools, churches, business, farms—as to soils, and 
farms—as to produce. 

There are many individuals like Winters who are 
able to rejoice in the fruitage of years of effort spent 
in behalf of Negro homes and communities. Some of 
these men and women have won national fame. For 
the most part their work is little known. 

Agencies That Promote Justice and Equality of Oppor¬ 
tunity for the Negro 

The spirit of the founders of the early mission schools 
determined in large measure the spirit at the founda¬ 
tion of the educational, social, and religious movements 
in behalf of Negroes. From the colleges and universi¬ 
ties have gone forth the youth of the land who have 
been unable to get away from the sociological principle 
that recognizes the handicap to all progress when any 
portion of a community is ill-used continually. This 
same spirit has fired the souls of the more enlightened 
colored students to work for the promotion of the 
larger brotherhood. Viewed in the light of their faith, 
the feeling that both races may be approaching a period 
of enlightenment and cooperation is not without foun- 


V 


106 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


dation. “The colored people have become doers,” de¬ 
clares Mrs. Corelia T. Cook of Washington, D. C., a 
college woman prominent in national work in behalf 
of her race. She pays a fine tribute to a college that 
was one of the first schools of higher learning to be 
founded by home mission agencies for Negroes in the 
South: 

“In its early days, more than one ex-slave drank from 
its fountain of knowledge. Sometimes mother and 
daughter, father and son were members of the same 
class. Our modern social settlement is hardly an im¬ 
provement upon our early mission school. Our college 
teachers gave that personal touch which is now, as it 
was then, the mightiest leverage for social betterment. 
The timely talks, the expert instruction upon all do¬ 
mestic work, the careful religious training, the super¬ 
vised recreation, are delightful to recall. Every grad¬ 
uate became a missionary and felt in duty bound to do 
unto others as had been done unto him.” 

When Eugene Kinckle Jones completed his prepara¬ 
tion for college in a certain mission school in Rich¬ 
mond, Virginia, he was awarded an Avery scholarship 
at the University of Pittsburgh but declined it to enter 
a college in the South. He chose an institution main¬ 
tained by home mission agencies. He wanted to know 
more about his own people. As a student in the South 
he felt that he could get a better understanding of the 
psychology of the Negro group than was possible in a 
university in the North. What were the yearnings of 
the young men and women of his race ? How were they 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


107 


interpreting life? Were they daring to hope that the 
future held large things for them? 

Like thousands of young people who have come under 
the influence of forward-looking teachers in the schools 
for Negro youth in the South, Jones had learned the 
value of honest work, for it never has been the policy 
of the management of schools of this character to be¬ 
stow the advantages of an educational institution as a 
free gift upon Negroes, but only to bring these ad¬ 
vantages within possible reach of all who are willing 
to work for them. Jones became a hard worker. When 
he entered Cornell at the completion of his college 
course, he had chosen civil engineering as a life work. 
At the end of the first semester he w r rote a letter to 
his father announcing his determination to take special 
courses in the social sciences. Eighteen months later 
he received the degree of M.A. from Cornell and his 
activities since that event have been proof of the genu¬ 
ineness of his desire to be of service to his race. As 
executive secretary of the National Urban League he 
has come into intimate contact with constructive move¬ 
ments, both local and national, looking toward race 
adjustment. The Urban League is interracial and non¬ 
sectarian in its approach to community problems and 
is a product of the joint planning of enlightened men 
and women of both races who believe that without co¬ 
operation there is bound to be conflict. 

The same spirit that brought forth the Urban League 
gave birth also to the great conferences—some of them 
interracial in character—that have been conducted or 


108 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


furthered by organizations such as the Young Men’s 
Christian Association, Young Women’s Christian Asso¬ 
ciation, The Commission on the Church and Race Rela¬ 
tions of the Federal Council of Churches, the Commis¬ 
sion on Interracial Cooperation, Sociological Congress, 
the University Commission on Southern Race Ques¬ 
tions, the Home Missions Council, the Council of 
Women for Home Missions, the Boards of Home Mis¬ 
sions of the different denominations, the International 
Sunday School Council of Religious Education and 
other religious and civic organizations. 

The Negro is insisting that he shall be given oppor¬ 
tunity to work out his own salvation. He does not wish 
to be left alone, but seeks helpful Christian contacts 
that will lead to an understanding of the problems of 
both races, white and black, and an equitable sharing 
of the responsibilities incident to the solution of his 
problems. Understanding and cooperation without 
pauperization is the burden of the argument advanced 
by leading Negroes who are thinking constructively 
concerning race relations. 1 

The reality that leadership is not a question of race 
or ritual, but of Christian spirit, places an obliga- 


i In fifty-three years of freedom the Negro has increased his 
homes owned from 12,000 to 600,000; farms operated from 20,000 
to 1,000,000; business enterprises from 2,100 to 50,000. He has 
increased in literacy sixty per cent, and the number of his 
teachers from 600 to 38,000. The sum spent from his own pocket 
for his own education has increased from $80,000 to $1,700,000; 
his church property from $1,500,000 to $85,900,000, and his gen¬ 
eral wealth from $20,000,000 to $1,100,000,000 .—From data col¬ 
lected by the National Urban League. 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


109 


tion upon the stronger elements of American society to 
eliminate the barriers that hinder the two races from 
knowing each other as friends and arriving at a com¬ 
mon ground of understanding. Otherwise the old 
method of using force where diverse interests meet 
will prevail. George E. Haynes, secretary of the Com¬ 
mission on the Church and Race Relations, 1 not only 
warns his readers of the “slowly increasing spirit of 
resistance to injustice and mistreatment,” but sounds 
a hopeful note when he defines the method which he be¬ 
lieves will result in the triumph of justice. “The rela¬ 
tion of the two races finally rests/’ he says, “not upon 
wealth or poverty, not upon things or lack of them, 
but upon the mental, social, and spiritual attitudes and 
habits of conduct of life that grow out of the feeling 
experiences of the two races as they have contact in 
agriculture, industry, education, government, religion, 
and the like. The great hope of the future is that the 
ideals of Jesus may determine the conditions of these 
experiences and the conditions of these contacts.” 2 

This new hope burning in the hearts of Negroes who 
have the Christian outlook is reflected in the discussion 
periods of their many conferences, not only those fos¬ 
tered by the Commission on the Church and Race Rela¬ 
tions, but by other Christian agencies. In this connec- 

1 For the history of the movement which resulted in the for¬ 
mation of the Commission on the Church and Race Relations, see 
The Churches at Work for Interracial Cooperation, leaflet issued 
by the Federal Council of Churches, 105 East 22nd Street, New 
York City. 

2 Haynes, George E., The Trend of the Races, pp. 17 and 21. 


110 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


tion should be mentioned the annual student conference 
held by the International Young Men’s Christian Asso¬ 
ciation at Lincoln Academy, King’s Mountain, N. C., 
and those held by the National Board of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association for student, younger 
girls, community and industrial groups at Talledega, 
Ala., King’s Mountain, N. C., Frankfort, Ky., and 
Cheyney, Pa., respectively. 

Signs of an Aroused National Conscience 

Early in the year 1920 the women of the Methodist 
Church, South, determined to answer more definitely 
the call of God in the special field of race relations. 
Convinced that the existing racial situations in the 
South were a challenge to Christian faith as well as 
an opportunity “to set before the whole world an ex¬ 
ample of the power of Christianity to meet interracial 
crises everywhere,” they created a commission for the 
purpose of “Studying the whole question of race rela¬ 
tionships, the needs of Negro women and children, and 
the methods of cooperation by which conditions might 
be brought about.” 

A conference composed of white women representing 
the newly formed commission and representatives of 
the National Colored Women’s Clubs was held in 
Tuskegee, Alabama, July, 1920, and, led by the success 
of this conference, the Commission of Interracial Co¬ 
operation financed a meeting to which were invited 
the official women leaders of all the denominations and 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


111 


Christian agencies in the South, “that the great oppor¬ 
tunity for Southern women to have a larger part in 
bringing in better understanding between the races 
might be brought to their attention.” From this gath¬ 
ering emerged the Woman’s Interracial Committees in 
the Southern states, interdenominational in character 
and proving to be powerful allies of the Commission 
on Interracial Cooperation. 

The women of the states where this organized inter¬ 
racial work has begun, have been fearless in making 
known their convictions concerning some of the causes 
of present-day race frictions. One of their manifestos 
includes the following declaration: 

“In all fairness we demand at the hands of public 
officials the same protection for the lowliest and most 
helpless, not only of our own race, but of this other 
race to which we are bound by cords which cannot be 
broken. . . . Since the test of character in an indi¬ 
vidual or race is not to be found in the attitude or 
treatment of those on equal battleground, but of those 
who are helpless and whose term of opportunity has 
been shorter than one’s own, we appeal to our race to 
demonstrate its claim to superior qualities in a bigness 
and breadth of soul which will reach out and give a 
square deal and a man’s chance to this race, which calls 
our country its own and is true to its flag.” 

Statements equally as strong have been issued by 
other organizations of commanding influence in the 
South. There are living forces back of these pronounce¬ 
ments. A movement to enlist the 250,000 organized 


112 FOR A NEW AMERICA 

women of the Methodist Church, South, in a deter¬ 
mined and systematic campaign for adequate laws and 
for law enforcement followed the defeat of the Dyer 
Anti-Lyncliing Bill. Representative women from thir¬ 
teen states in conference at Atlanta, Georgia, Decem¬ 
ber 4-6, 1922, began the campaign by requesting the 
authorities of the several Southern states to make good 
their claim proving their competency to abolish mob 
violence and lynching and called upon the authorities, 
pulpit, press, and people for united support to this end. 
The Georgia Baptist Convention in session in the same 
city, a few days later, made equally as strong a dec¬ 
laration of war against lawlessness. 

At a conference of white and Negro church leaders 
under the auspices of the Commission on the Church 
and Race Relations, Federal Council of Churches, held 
in New York City, February 23, 1923, definite indica¬ 
tions were noted of a probable large migration of 
Negroes to the North in the immediate future, and it 
was recommended that religious, social, civic, and com¬ 
mercial agencies in northern cities cooperate in form¬ 
ing interracial committees to deal with the question of 
race relations. It was recognized that the question of 
relations of the races has a fundamental religious sig¬ 
nificance and must be solved by the application of the 
principles of brotherhood and that white and Negro 
ministers hold the key to the situation and upon them 
rest great responsibilities for the initiative. It was 
recommended that churches encourage practical move¬ 
ments for improving conditions of housing among col- 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


113 


ored people, particularly the new migrants, that the 
interracial committees make contacts with employers 
of Negro labor to advise on perplexing problems and 
to encourage further employment, and that the Negro 
workers themselves be encouraged to reach greater ef¬ 
ficiency through punctuality, regularity, and proper at¬ 
titude toward their work. 

The relation of leisure time to the religious advance¬ 
ment of the Negro was taken into consideration by the 
conference when it was recommended that (1) The 
churches exercise vigilance to see that Negroes may 
have access to public facilities for recreation and that 
when necessary such facilities be provided in neigh¬ 
borhoods where they live; (2) colored people be stimu¬ 
lated through the churches to avail themselves of the 
advantages of parks, playgrounds, libraries, museums, 
etc.; (3) existing church property and equipment be 
used to greater extent for service of the people seven 
days in the week; (4) community centers and parish 
houses be established whenever practicable; (5) social 
programs be undertaken in churches, and that use be 
made of motion pictures, dramatics, and similar recre¬ 
ational features; (6) efforts by interracial groups be 
made to see that the enforcement of municipal regula¬ 
tion for commercialized amusement centers frequented 
by Negro patrons is the same as that for places fre¬ 
quented by white patrons; (7) increased attention be 
given by the churches to young people in recreation as 
well as in worship; (8) more attention be given to dis¬ 
covering and training competent leadership in the 


114 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


church and community activities of Negro young folk. 

Interesting developments mark the movement for 
better race relations in America. Important inter¬ 
racial situations have been met in a constructive way 
by white and Negro leaders in Atlanta, Raleigh, 
Memphis, New Orleans, Nashville, Cincinnati, Dayton, 
Cleveland, Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, 
St. Louis, Philadelphia, Youngstown, O., Wichita, 
Kan., and other cities. 

In Baltimore there has been formed the Baltimore 
Cooperative Women’s Civic League which includes 
women of both races. This was established by Miss 
Elizabeth Gilman, daughter of the late President of 
Johns Hopkins University. Interracial good-will has 
been promoted in a variety of ways. A public demon¬ 
stration of the value of milk as a food and also as a 
necessity in the case of infants and of people afflicted 
with tuberculosis, an annual flower market in March 
and May and meetings of working mothers at which 
the care and training of the adolescent girl has been the 
main subject of consideration are among the activities. 
Several of the women physicians of Baltimore have 
given talks at these gatherings. The white clergymen 
of the city have joined with the colored people in form¬ 
ing an Interracial Committee. A better housing plan 
for the colored people is a feature of the program. 

It has been a matter of general knowledge that 
Tuskegee and Hampton have promoted the holding 
of schools and conferences among the scattered fami¬ 
lies of Southern states where groups of people from 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


115 


backward settlements could assemble to receive instruc¬ 
tion and discuss tbe best means of furthering practical 
work in which entire communities are concerned. It 
is now reported that a Church Board of Home Mis¬ 
sions has taken over this idea and has brought to¬ 
gether over one hundred ministers from the small towns 
and country districts of North Carolina, South Caro¬ 
lina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, 
and Virginia. It is hoped that through these ministers 
thousands of the rural population in these eight states 
will be reached and taught better methods concerning 
their daily living. Classes in orcharding, the preserva¬ 
tion of eggs, nursing, and farm mechanics have been 
held. Teaching in the formal manner has been supple¬ 
mented by the actual doing of various things by each 
member of the class. 

The Negro population of the United States as given 
by the census of 1920 is 10,463,013. The increase in the 
North and West during the decade 1910-1920 was 
472,418. During this period there was an increase of 
1.9 per cent in the South, while the rate of increase in 
the North was 43.3 per cent and in the West 55.1 per 
cent. There is a story back of these figures. They tell 
in briefest terms that the Negro problem is no longer 
sectional. The South no longer bears it alone; it has 
become a national problem. In New York City there 
has sprung into being the largest purely Negro metropo¬ 
lis in the world. During the decade in question the 
Negro population of St. Louis increased 60 per cent, 
Omaha 133 per cent, Chicago 150 per cent, Youngstown 


116 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


244 per cent, Cleveland 300 per cent, Tulsa 333 per cent, 
Detroit 600 per cent, Gary 1,300 per cent, Philadelphia 
60 per cent, Pittsburgh 50 per cent, Baltimore 40 per 
cent, Wilmington, Delaware, 18.4 per cent, and Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., 16.4 per cent. The problem that became 
acute immediately following this unprecedented Negro 
migration was three-fold in character, embracing the 
Negro’s social and industrial maladjustment, his lack 
of organization and of intelligent guidance. Bad hous¬ 
ing conditions, lack of healthful recreations and of 
wholesome family life, became the evil handmaidens of 
the economic and social inequalities to which the Negro 
in his new environment was subjected. 1 

The crime problem as related to Negroes cannot be 
considered apart from their environment. 

Professor Charles E. Merriam, in speaking of the 
economic and industrial aspects of Negro crime in Chi¬ 
cago, says: 

“This problem as I see it is very complicated. We 
have to deal first with the matter of economic class 
which is at the bottom of a good deal of it, then with 
the matter of race, which is at the bottom of a good 
deal more of it although perhaps not as much as class; 
then there is the matter of politics or a system which 
has grown up for thirty or forty years back, which 
makes the class and race relations a good deal more 
difficult to deal with. 

“If every man had good housing conditions, a 
steady job at a living wage, and a good opportunity for 

1 Epstein, Abraham, The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh, p. 68. 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


117 


education, there would not be very much crime. . . . 
Particularly in the case of the colored people, the crime 
is on the part of the community, on the part of the 
city that allows bad conditions to exist. Negroes ought 
to be protected. They don’t get protection for the 
same reason that it is always hard to protect the eco¬ 
nomically weak against the strong. There is not any 
use of making a lot of fine phrases about it—that is 
largely where the trouble lies.” 1 

Concerning the destructive agencies to which the 
Negro settlements in Chicago are exposed, the Chicago 
Vice Commission severely condemned “the apparent 
discrimination against the colored citizens.” 

“Invariably the large vice districts have been created 
within or near the settlements of colored people. . . . 
The apparent discrimination ... is unjust and abhor¬ 
rent to all fair-minded people. Colored children should 
receive the same moral protection that white children 
receive. . . . 

“The prejudice against colored girls who are ambi¬ 
tious to earn an honest living is unjust. Such an atti¬ 
tude eventually drives them into immoral surroundings. 
They need special care and protection on the maxim 
that it is the duty of the strong to help the weak. Any 
effort, therefore, to improve conditions in Chicago 
should provide more wholesome surroundings for the 
families of its colored citizens who now live in com¬ 
munities of colored people.” 2 

1 The Negro in Chicago , by the Chicago Commission on Race 
Relations, p. 356. 

2 Chicago Vice Commission Report, 1911, pp. 38 ff. 


118 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Statistics gathered during a survey covering, among 
other questions, juvenile delinquency in St. Louis, 
show that the Negro group, constituting one tenth of 
the population, furnished more than 25 per cent of the 
juvenile delinquency cases. The fundamental contri¬ 
bution of the St. Louis survey is that it has broken up 
the city into survey districts of relative homogeneous 
character with the purpose of avoiding the use of such 
wholesale statements. This district study shows that 
the older Negro population lives preponderantly in a 
different section of the city from the new immigrant 
Negro. In the two districts in which the older Negro 
population predominates and where it occupies better 
homes and has better economic status, the general 
juvenile delinquency rate is not increased and in one 
case is actually reduced by the Negro population. It 
is where white boys and white girls live in subnormal 
environments that they show an excessive juvenile de¬ 
linquency rate. This is true of Jew and Gentile—of 
all nationalities, white and colored. It is because the 
Negro in St. Louis and elsewhere lives in a poor en¬ 
vironment that he shows many of these unfortunate 
phenomena which usually are ascribed to race. This 
is the real moral of the St. Louis survey in its study of- 
juvenile delinquency regionally. 1 

In New York City, the Negro population is 2.7 of 
the whole, while they contribute 3.3 of the juvenile de¬ 
linquency—only .6 of one per cent in excess of their 
proportion of the total population. In 1915 the colored 
children contributed 1.7 of the total juvenile delin- 

i See Report of St. Louis Survey. General Reading List. 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


119 


quency, while the Negro population was over 2 per cent 
of the total population. 

The juvenile courts in cities where Christian centers 
for Negroes are located have requested the cooperation 
of the volunteer and paid workers at these centers as 
well as the members of the local Urban League to fur¬ 
ther constructive measures to meet the problem of the 
unprotected adolescent boy and girl. 1 

In cities affected by the migration, church facilities 
for Negroes rapidly become a pressing problem. The 
Southern Negro normally is a church member. The 
church is the greatest social factor in his life, and in 
not a few of the Northern cities the Negro churches 
made commendable progress in their efforts to serve 
the strangers who came into their districts. The 
churches formed their reception committees, employ¬ 
ment agencies, home finders’ leagues, day-nurseries, 
health centers, and other seven-day-in-the-w T eek activi¬ 
ties aimed to guide the “lost sheep” into familiar paths 
of Christian fellowship and thereby in the most effec¬ 
tive w T ay preserve the morale of a bewildered people 
during a period of readjustment. Many great needs 
could not be met. The Home Mission Boards gave as¬ 
sistance in the emergency, surveys were made, and 
fundamental principles of cooperation were agreed 
upon. State programs for Negro work were set up, 
wTiich have reflected the sound judgment and integrity 
of the Negro leaders in religious work in the North. 

The Christian neighborhood houses in congested 

1 Jones, Eugene Kinckle, Problems of the Colored Child. In 
the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science, November, 1921. 


120 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Negro communities, jointly supported by whites and 
blacks, have proved of incalculable value as social out¬ 
lets to large groups of unprivileged colored people. 
These centers serve “to encourage self-improvement, 
stimulate healthful pleasure, broaden civic interests, 
and create ideals of conduct.” Without doubt many 
have fulfilled their purpose as settlement houses to 
meet a need of stable home life in communities where 
living conditions are wretched beyond words to de¬ 
scribe. A colored woman in Pittsburgh while packing 
her trunks to go back to Georgia said: “I never lived 
in such houses in my life. We had four rooms in my 
home in the South.” In this woman’s neighborhood 
were families living in two rooms with as many as six 
people sleeping in one room at a time. In many in¬ 
stances these families did not have the use of bath¬ 
rooms, one outside hydrant being used by several fami¬ 
lies. The community laundries installed in the neigh¬ 
borhood houses are a boon to the dwellers amid such 
surroundings. With the cooperation of municipal 
health departments some of these neighborhood houses 
have become famous as health centers. The value of 
consistent hygiene is taught, the mothers eagerly com¬ 
peting for the gold stars that are placed upon the 
health charts of their children in recognition of nor¬ 
mal physical development. 

The centers furnish opportunities for large staffs of 
voluntary workers to lead groups in Bible study, civics, 
plain sewing, dressmaking, cooking, millinery, singing, 
dramatics, debating, scout drill, mass games, gymnas¬ 
tics, and other forms of rewarding service. 


THE NEGRO IN AMERICA 


121 


Suggestions for Additional Study and Discussion 

Mark 10: 13-161 

1. What are some of the evidences that the Negroes in Amer¬ 
ica, in spite of their handicaps, have made a creditable advance 
in business, science, culture, and religion ? 2 

2. Wherein may the white and colored churches cooperate? 

(Bishop R. E. Jones, in answering this question recommends: 

(1) a monthly meeting of white and colored preachers for discus¬ 
sion of community, educational and religious activities; (2) the 
interchange of pulpits between white and Negro preachers wher¬ 
ever locally practicable, the white preachers to avoid giving 
patronizing advice; (3) Negro choirs, quartets and soloists in¬ 
vited to sing in white churches; (4) white men and women in¬ 
vited to teach in Negro Sunday schools; Negro Sunday schools or¬ 
ganized cooperatively in needy sections of the city and country; 
(5) cooperative development of playgrounds and other social ac¬ 
tivities.) 

3. Based upon your personal knowledge of the social and eco¬ 
nomic conditions among Negroes in your community, what sub¬ 
jects would you propose for discussion in an interracial confer¬ 
ence in your town or city? 

(Closely allied to Christian work for Negroes in cities is the 
social service work of the National Urban League, with head¬ 
quarters at 127 East 23rd Street, New York City. During the 
year through funds made available by the Carnegie Foundation, 
this organization has set up a Department of Research and In¬ 
vestigation. Mr. Charles L. Johnson, formerly associated with 
Mr. Graham Romeyn Taylor of the Chicago Race Commission, has 
been placed in charge. Already a careful study of a thousand 
Negro families in Hartford, Conn., has been made. In printed 
form this survey, including religious as well as industrial and 
social conclusions, will be available for those interested. A survey 

1 How Jesus Met Life Questions. Chapter XXV. 

2 See Hammond, L. H., In the Vanguard of a Race. 


122 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


of the social and religious conditions among Negroes in Buffalo 
has been made by H. R. Husted. See Foreign Speaking and Negro 
Sections of Buffalo , leaflet issued by the Buffalo Federation of 
Churches. Price, 15 cents.) 

4. Is there a disproportionate number of cases of Negro de¬ 
linquency in any court with which you are familiar? 

5. What are the causes of the excessive delinquency rate, if 
there is such, among colored children of your community? How 
may these conditions be remedied? 

6. Outline a suggestive program looking toward the alleviation 
of the unfavorable conditions in the Negro community under dis¬ 
cussion. 

(Obtain from your church Boards data covering denominational 
activity in behalf of unprivileged Negroes in America. Address 
the Secretary of the Commission on Church and Race Relations, 
Federal Council of Churches, 105 East 22nd Street, New York 
City, for information concerning the cooperative actions of the 
churches in the promotion of better racial relations in America.) 

Supplemental Reading 

Brawley, Benjamin C., A Social History of the American Negro. 

1921. The Macmillan Co., New York. $4.00. 

Detweiler, Frederick G., The Negro Press in the United States. 

1922. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. $3.00. 
Hammond, L. H., In the Vanguard of a Race. 1922. Council of 

Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Move¬ 
ment, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Haynes, George E., The Trend of the Races. 1922. Council of 
Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Move¬ 
ment, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Shields, Emma L., Negro Women in Industry. Bulletin of the 
Women’s Bureau, No. 20, U. S. Department of Labor, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. 

Work, Munroe N., The Negro Year Book for 1921-1922. Tuskegee 
Institute, Atlanta, Georgia. Cloth, $1.00; boards, 50 cents. 

The Negro in Chicago. Prepared by the Chicago Commission on 
Race Relations. 1922. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 
$ 6 . 00 . 

Negro Students in Africa, America, and Europe. The Student 
World, April, 1923. John R. Mott, Editor. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE IN THE UNITED 

STATES 

Introducing Bcn)amin, an American 

I N earliest boyhood Benjamin became personally 
acquainted with adversity. For five years his 
father had been partially incapacitated by an ac¬ 
cidental injury, and when death finally released the 
sufferer from his pain, Benjamin became the bread¬ 
winner for seven in addition to himself. At this time 
he was seventeen, and for two or three years thereafter 
he did a man’s work in a brick yard. In the meantime 
his mother, two sisters, and a brother died as a result 
of privations endured in the United States. The home 
thus broken up, Benjamin’s three brothers, younger 
than himself, were placed in an orphan asylum. At 
this point in his life he came in contact with an Ameri¬ 
can pastor and the latter’s mother, whose influence was 
of that wholesome sort that has saved countless boys 
from giving up their battles in despair. There were 
other American friends who knew how to express their 
friendship for the Mexican boy in helpful ways. As a 
result of these Christian contacts, Benjamin became a 
follower of Christ. When his three brothers implored 
him to take them from the orphan asylum, he found the 
courage to do it. He secured a small shack, bought a 

little furniture, and set up a home once more. 

123 


124 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


In time Benjamin’s brothers entered a mission day 
school where Mexican children were taught in the 
English language. And let it be recorded in passing 
that the mission day schools as well as the boarding 
schools for Mexicans in the Southwest have performed 
a service that cannot be measured by words. Benjamin 
noted with interest the progress made by his brothers, 
and a strong passion to make a better account of his 
own life possessed him. One Sunday morning he sur¬ 
prised the missionaries who conducted the day school 
by attending the service at their mission. He wushed 
to thank these workers for what they had done for his 
brothers. He also gave the missionaries to understand 
that he was happy to claim Jesus as his Friend and 
that he was ready to respond to every legitimate claim 
of the gospel. As he became more intimately ac¬ 
quainted with the missionaries, he betrayed some of 
his deeper longings. Not long thereafter, under their 
tutelage, he began the study of the Bible in English. 
Gradually his vision broadened. For his people re¬ 
ligion had meant repression; for them it had no asso¬ 
ciation in thought with freedom and power. It was 
borne home to him that the bondage in w T hich his people 
in old Mexico had lived was due to superstition, fear, 
and ignorance. An elevating and transforming in¬ 
fluence had entered his life which carried him beyond 
a concern for his own personal welfare. He began to 
think in terms of the needs of thousands of his coun¬ 
trymen who were crossing the border into the United 
States. During his brief experience as a conscious child 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE 125 

of God he had noted the progress that some of his 
Christian Mexican acquaintances had made. He told 
the missionaries that he believed that his people made 
faster progress after they became acquainted with God. 
He confessed that his own conversion had made a radi¬ 
cal difference in his outlook upon life. He wanted to 
be of use to his people and realized the necessity of an 
education in order to do the things for them which he 
considered of greatest importance. 

Succeeding events were favorable in the development 
of Benjamin’s plans. More remunerative employment 
was found for him. The management of the business 
concern employing him soon discovered his worth and 
advanced him to a responsible position. His work was 
of a character that enabled him to spend several hours 
each day in study. With the ministry as his ultimate 
goal he did not neglect the opportunities open to him 
as a volunteer worker in the city where he was em¬ 
ployed. He became superintendent of a Sunday school 
and during a period of rapid growth in the Mexican 
population in Southern California, assisted in opening 
several mission stations. Subsequently he entered a 
theological seminary in the Middle West. 

Six years ago Benjamin became the pastor of a 
church of sixteen members in a city in Southern Cali¬ 
fornia. The church now has a membership of over 
one hundred. Under Benjamin’s leadership several 
Mexican young people have dedicated their lives to 
Christian service. Two young men have gone out from 
this church to study for the ministry in an evangelical 


126 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


seminary in old Mexico. Two young women have be¬ 
come trained nurses and are carrying into the homes of 
the Mexican people ideals of Christian living in a way 
their special training makes possible. A growing com¬ 
pany of young people are being trained under this 
pastor to take responsible positions in the church or¬ 
ganizations and become a positive religious force in 
the community. Evidently his life is being duplicated 
many times as others of his race catch the vision of 
purposeful living through his ministry. 

One People’s Need Another’s Opportunity 

It is estimated that a million and a half Mexicans 
and Spanish-Americans are in the United States, 1 
Texas, with 450,000, has the largest Spanish-speaking 
population of any state. At least 60 per cent of the 
population of New Mexico, or approximately 250,000, is 
Spanish-American, Arizona’s Spanish-speaking popula¬ 
tion borders upon the 100,000 mark, and California has 
nearly as many. San Antonio, Texas, has 50,000 Mexi¬ 
cans and Spanish-Americans; El Paso is 55 per cent 
Mexican; Los Angeles has a Mexican colony conserva- 

i “We have chosen to use the term ‘Mexican’ to describe that 
large group of Mexican people which has come into the United 
States more or less recently, particularly since the breakdown of 
the old governmental regime in Mexico, and which is funda¬ 
mentally Mexican in training and habits of thought. Chiefly be¬ 
cause of its familiarity, we are using the term ‘Spanish-American’ 
to describe that other group of Mexican origin which is American 
by birth, training, or habits of thought and which stands out most 
conspicuously in New Mexico, although it is by no means confined 
exclusively to that state.”—Jay S. Stowell in Mexicans and Span¬ 
ish-Americans in the United States. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE 


127 


tively estimated at 30,000. Brownsville and Laredo, 
Texas, and Nogales, Arizona, are 75 per cent Mexican; 
many towns in New Mexico are 100 per cent Spanish- 
American. 

Recent years have marked an increasing flow of 
Mexican migrants across the southern border. While 
some of them may have fled from their country for 
political reasons or because of the commission of 
crimes, the great majority have come because intoler¬ 
able living conditions in Mexico drove them to seek a 
more favorable economic environment. They have come 
to work, many of them under contract. Their tradi¬ 
tions have yielded them little to awaken a friendly feel¬ 
ing for America. On the contrary, they are exceedingly 
tenacious of their language and customs and a certain 
form of Americanization is distasteful to them. The 
hope of returning to their native land whenever they 
may live there under more favorable conditions is a 
factor to be reckoned with in efforts to make them feel 
at home here. 

For the most part they are considered good workers, 
notably so in the Imperial Valley of California, in the 
Salt River Valley of Arizona, and in certain farming 
districts of Texas, Colorado, and Idaho, where their 
services are well-nigh indispensable in the harvesting 
of the crops. One transcontinental railroad employs 
14,000 of them. They are engaged not only in construc¬ 
tion work, but are doing a large share of the manual 
labor in many kinds of industry, serving the people of 
the entire nation. They herd sheep and cattle, harvest 


128 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


cotton, sugar beets, oranges, grapes, small fruits, and 
nuts; many of them are skilled florists and gardeners. 
Indeed they may be found in practically all of the 
essential occupations. 

Bewildered, timid, and often discouraged, multitudes 
of Mexican migrants are crowded in w T retched city tene¬ 
ments or equally wretched shacks. The World Survey 
reports that in general the living conditions of the 
Spanish population are considerably lower than those 
of the older American stock, that their general environ¬ 
ment is unsanitary and their educational and religious 
opportunities scant. Preventable diseases are preva¬ 
lent among them. It is reported that 23 per cent of 
the applicants for relief at the County Charities in 
Los Angeles are Mexicans, although they compose but 
5 per cent of the population. The majority of these 
cases are the direct result of sickness or other physical 
incapacity. The death-rate among Mexican babies is 
three times the average for the entire city, a dispropor¬ 
tion due largely to an inadequate diet. 

Naturally of a hospitable disposition they feel keenly 
the lack of a welcoming hand. A genial, tactful, sym¬ 
pathetic guidance, such as a neighbor might give, goes 
a long way with them. The duty of the Christian peo¬ 
ple on this side of the border is easily discernible. 

A People Ready for the Gospel 

Workers who know this people say that the Mexicans 
are ready to receive the gospel, and encouraging spir- 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE 129 

itual results are being secured from their work among 
them. Not only in the United States but in Mexico are 
Mexican communities enriched by the lives of men and 
women who have come under the transforming influence 
of the gospel. With the zeal that characterized be¬ 
lievers in apostolic times, the present-day Mexican con¬ 
verts go out as faithful witnesses of the truth as they 
understand the truth. 

Conversions among recent arrivals are frequent. 
Three Mexican young men lost their positions on a 
railroad in Mexico because of habitual drunkenness, 
drifted to Pueblo, Colorado, and in a mission there 
heard the gospel preached in Spanish. They responded 
to the invitation to choose a mode of living in accord¬ 
ance with the gospel message and returned to Mexico 
where two are now holding responsible positions on the 
railroad from which they had been discharged while 
the third is a successful merchant in Saltillo. Recently 
a Mexican was converted in Denver and before an op¬ 
portunity to be baptized was offered went to the beet 
lands for employment. He harvested the beets with 
hundreds of his countrymen and found occasion to 
distribute tracts and in other ways actively promote 
the cause of Christ. 

An Increasing Emphasis on the Community 

A practical interpretation of the principles of Jesus 
as applied to community responsibility is a wholesome 
outgrowth of mission work among Spanish-speaking 


130 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


people in the United States. In addition to the schools 
and orphanages for boys and girls, there have been de¬ 
veloped Christian centers, neighborhood houses, and 
allied community enterprises, the value of which may 
be judged by the contributions made to the religious 
and social life of the people they serve rather than by 
the additions to the membership constituency of Protes¬ 
tant churches. 

In this field volunteer and salaried workers are find¬ 
ing opportunities for helpful service. Trained workers 
representing both the Spanish-speaking and American 
groups are being recruited. An American desiring to 
gain an intimate and first-hand knowledge of the social, 
economic, and religious background of the Mexican im¬ 
migrant population, after graduating from a theologi¬ 
cal seminary in this country, entered the University of 
Mexico to pursue a course of study in Spanish and later 
spent some time in travel in those regions below the 
border from which there has been a large immigration. 
He is now engaged in promoting social and religious 
work in behalf of Spanish-speaking groups in the 
Southwest, his training and study enabling him to 
bring to bear upon the practical problems of the church 
expert knowledge in relation to each particular group. 

The social-religious ministry under discussion is en¬ 
gendered by a sympathetic desire to help a needy people 
become adjusted to a new environment and has resulted 
in creating confidence on the part of the newcomers in 
Americans and in a republic for w T hich they have had 
a natural aversion. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE 


131 


“The call for Christian and community service among 
migrant Mexicans in the Southwest is very great. 
Shall this call be heard? It goes up to the members 
of our American churches all over the Western states 
where the Mexican with his family goes for work. It 
summons the average church member to visit the homes 
and create neighborly relations with Mexicans near 
at hand. It bids groups of men and women in our 
churches to arrange for Mexican groups, mothers’ 
meetings and so on in our regular Protestant organi¬ 
zations. The program invites strong, seed-sowing 
Christians, members of our churches, to enlarge the 
borders of their tents and include these least in their 
thoughts and plans in many local communities. It is 
the high call of God to neighborliness as the essence of 
the Christian gospel to groups of handicapped.” 1 

Independent Christian agencies like the Y.M.C.A. 
and Y.W.C.A., in addition to the local churches and 
city, state, and national church boards, are assisting 
in this work. English classes, cooking classes, home¬ 
making clubs, midday lunch clubs for shop girls and 
stenographers, community reading rooms and circu¬ 
lating libraries are some of the activities carried on to 
create the “my neighbor” atmosphere for those who 
are on their way to a better understanding of the 
deeper meaning of American citizenship. 

In a city in Southern California several of the Prot- 

i Roundy, R. W., “The Mexican in Our Midst,” in the Mission¬ 
ary Review of the World. Also see The Home of Neighborly 
Service , by Robert N. McLean, a leaflet published by the Home 
Missions Council and Council of Women for Home Missions. 


132 FOR A NEW AMERICA 

estant churches have united in organizing and main¬ 
taining a neighborhood house near a large public school 
attended by many Mexican children. Each church feels 
that it has a vital interest in the institution. The run¬ 
ning expenses of the center are shared by the women’s 
mission circles of these churches and form one of the 
items on their regular yearly budgets. The matron is 
supported by one church, the field worker by another, 
the nurse by a third. With the cooperation of local 
physicians, a maternity ward has been operated suc¬ 
cessfully. Among other activities may be mentioned 
home visitation, classes in English, special holiday pro¬ 
grams, and a noon lunch for the younger Mexican 
school children. A slight charge is made for certain 
services when this is considered advisable by the man¬ 
agement. 

Christian Education for New-day Leadership 

It is worthy of record that commendable progress 
has been made in the public schools in certain cities 
of the Southwest in adapting equipment and curriculum 
to the needs of Mexicans. In 1922, the year that 
marked the beginning of the junior high schools in 
El Paso, there was one school organized—the San 
Jacinto Junior High School—that differs from the 
others in that it is intended to contain the germ of a 
great technical high school and trade school for Mexi¬ 
cans. ‘‘There are rich opportunities for the city sys¬ 
tem in this direction,” states Superintendent A. H. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE 


133 


Hughey of the El Paso Public Schools. “Almost all of 
our Mexican school children formerly left the public 
schools right after the fourth grade. They are now 
remaining longer in much larger numbers, but they 
must be provided with educational opportunities of a 
more practical nature than heretofore. We are begin¬ 
ning this now in San Jacinto School. In years to come 
the results should show in a higher level of intelli¬ 
gence of our Mexican population, a higher plane of 
living, a better class of American citizens, and an im¬ 
mensely increased earning power among them owing to 
better education and trade training. . . . The large 
adult Mexican attendance at evening schools proves be¬ 
yond doubt the eagerness these people have for educa¬ 
tional advantages of a practical nature. We must pro¬ 
vide them all with the opportunity. First, it is right, 
as no one will dispute; next, it is wise, as breadth of 
view will disclose; finally, it will pay.” 

Professor Hughey furnishes the argument for the 
necessity of mission day schools for Spanish-speaking 
groups in communities where the public schools are 
inadequate or in larger centers where the schools may 
rank high with respect to courses and methods devised 
for English-speaking children but may place children 
from Spanish-speaking homes immediately at a disad¬ 
vantage. Again, in certain rural communities of New 
Mexico, even the teachers themselves are deficient in a 
knowledge of English and of modern educational 
methods. Because of these and allied conditions, the 
mission day schools in communities where they have 


134 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


been established comprise the only Americanizing 
factor in the community. “For a number of obvious 
reasons, the church cannot depend at present upon 
the public schools to provide the secondary training 
for the girls and boys upon whom its future work 
(among Mexicans) must so largely depend.” 1 

Exclusive of the various English courses conducted 
by the Christian Associations, Christian centers in 
urban communities, and other Americanization agen¬ 
cies, there are sixteen mission day schools for Mexi¬ 
cans and Spanish-Americans, twelve of which are in 
New Mexico, and eighteen boarding schools. Eight 
Home Mission Boards are responsible for this work. 
The enrolment of the day schools has exceeded that 
of the public school in communities where both have 
been established, and the boarding schools each year 
receive more applications than they can accept. It is 
reported that an encouraging number of young Mexi¬ 
can men and women are in the schools preparing to give 
their lives in service to their people in the United 
States and Mexico. 

In the mission schools are as valiant, consecrated, 
and public-spirited workers as may be found enlisted 
anywhere in the name of Christ. Some of the day 
schools are situated in remote places in desert and 
mountainous regions of the Southwest far from rail¬ 
roads, the highways leading thereto at certain seasons 
being impassable. Supplies are freighted in by wagon 

1 Stowell, Jay S., Mexicans and Spanish-Americans in the United 
States , pp. 12 ff. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING PEOPLE 


135 


or auto-truck. With the nearest doctor miles distant, 
the teachers often render valuable assistance in times 
of sickness. That the schools are held in high esteem 
by both Catholic and Protestant patrons may be judged 
by their enrolment. 


Suggestions for Additional Study and Discussion 

Luke 4: 16-30 1 

1. What is the “spirit of the border” as symbolized by the 
terms “Greaser” and “Gringo”? 

2. What was Jesus’ attitude toward race prejudice? 

3. What are some of the contrasts between Jesus’ conception of 
the worth of the individual and the conditions under which Mexi¬ 
can peons have lived? 

4. What events, policies and influences, if any, in our relations 
with Mexico would lead a Mexican to desire to become an 
American citizen? 

5. Why do Christians believe that all peoples are capable of 
positive development under certain conditions? 

6. When is the neglect of any people by constructive agencies 
justifiable? 

7. What practicable features would you suggest for a Christian 
Americanization program for a group of Mexican immigrants 
who do not care to become American citizens and who intend 
to return to Mexico as quickly as possible ? 

i How Jesus Met Life Questions. Chapter XIII. 


136 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Supplemental Reading 

Jones, Chester Lloyd, Mexico and Its Reconstruction (Chapter 
XX). 1921. D. Appleton and Co., New York. $3.50. 

McLean, Robert, and Williams, Grace Petrie. Old Spain and 
New America. 1916. Council of Women for Home Missions, 
New York. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 30 cents. 

Stowell, Jay S., The Near Side of the Mexican Question. 1921. 
George H. Doran Company, New York. $1.50. 

Stowell, Jay S., A Study of Mexicans and Spanish-Americans in 
the United States. 1920. Pamphlet published by the Home 
Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Mis¬ 
sions, New York. 50 cents. 


VI 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES IN INDUSTRIAL 

RECONSTRUCTION 

A Problem of Personal Religion 

I N the village of Wappingers Falls, N. Y., one eve¬ 
ning in January, 1923, nine men and one woman, 
all operatives in a local mill, met by regular ap¬ 
pointment to initiate measures relating to the proper¬ 
ties, business, and management of the company by 
which they were employed. The ten were not engaged 
in rehearsing parts in an amateur play. As the result 
of elections held a short time before in every depart¬ 
ment of the mill, they had begun their duties as mem¬ 
bers of a Board of Operatives or Workers Committee 
in a partnership plan in which the workers share with 
the owners the privileges and responsibilities of in¬ 
dustrial management. 

Less than five years ago a young business man of New 
York City faced a problem of personal religion w T hen he 
was made president of the Dutchess Bleachery. His de¬ 
sire, naturally, was to operate the mill at a profit, real¬ 
izing the importance of this to the employees, stock¬ 
holders, the management, and the community. In ac¬ 
cord with him were a number of influential stockhold¬ 
ers of this company who could not remain contented 
longer with existing relations between the workers and 
the owners. They considered as archaic and wholly 

inadequate the legal term a master and servant” as 

137 


138 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


defining the relation between employer and employee. 
The proposition that “capital and labor are partners’’ 
they viewed as a Christian principle and therefore 
binding. Accordingly, a partnership plan w T as evolved 
—a venture in faith. 

The management was fortunate in the choice of a 
man to represent this local industry in a movement to 
Christianize the relations between the four parties in¬ 
volved : labor, capital, management, and the com¬ 
munity. As the secretary of the Board of Operatives 
and of the Board of Management he has no vote in the 
actions of either the workers or the stockholders. “He 
represents one side no more than the other,” observes 
F. Ernest Johnson in The Christian Work. “He in¬ 
terprets each to the other. This is the best symbol I 
know of the function of the ministry in relation to 
industry.” 

At Wappingers Falls a group representing both capi¬ 
tal and labor has undertaken to make a practical ap¬ 
plication of the three principles essential in any part¬ 
nership. These principles, as defined by the president 
of the company, are: (1) A just and proportionate 
share of the profits and losses of the business. (2) An 
appropriate share in the management. (3) A knowl¬ 
edge of the affairs of the company. 

The practical expression of a belief in the soundness 
of these principles, according to the action of the stock¬ 
holders, involved: (1) A Board of Management repre¬ 
senting equally capital and labor; (2) an equal shar¬ 
ing of profits; (3) a full knowledge of the business of 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


139 


the company. Three boards which function under this 
arrangement for industrial democracy have been set 
up; namely, the Board of Operatives, the Board of 
Management, and the Board of Directors. The first, 
as has been stated, is composed of ten members, all 
representatives of the six hundred workers and an¬ 
nually elected by departments; the Board of Manage¬ 
ment is made up of six representatives of the workers 
elected by the Board of Operatives from among their 
number, and six representatives of the stockholders 
appointed by the Board of Directors; the latter body 
is composed of seven members including one represen¬ 
tative of the workers and one representative of the 
community. 

It will be observed that it is not taken for granted 
that the employer and the workers will not proceed 
with their partnership plan at the expense of the con¬ 
suming public. On the other hand, it is felt by the 
stockholders that “the interests of all partners being 
identical in the success of the company, these two di¬ 
rectors can represent the operatives and the public 
respectively without interfering with their natural 
functions as representatives of the stockholders.” 

The Board of Directors authorizes the statement that 
the partnership plan in operation at Wappingers Falls 
“is in no way opposed to organized labor.” The work¬ 
ers in one of the skilled departments are unionized 
and have cooperated under the plan in bringing about 
certain desirable changes and in the success of the plan 
itself. 


140 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


The Board of Operatives has been delegated certain 
powers and has four standing committees covering its 
main activities. This Board or Workmen’s Committee 
has charge of the company houses, even to the fixing 
of rents, granting repairs, and the general improve¬ 
ment of the property except in case of such large ex¬ 
penditures of money as are subject to the action of the 
Board of Directors. All recreational and educational 
work is under the sole direction of the Board of Opera¬ 
tives. As the workers realize that in the profit-sharing 
plan they pay one half of all expenses involved in wel¬ 
fare work, they are free to abolish it whenever they 
choose to do so. The entire welfare program in this 
democratic arrangement belongs to them and dignifies 
them. 

The Working Conditions Committee of the Board of 
Operatives reports on all matters of wages, hours, sani¬ 
tation, ventilation, and the comfort and safety of work¬ 
ing conditions. Any employee may take the initiative 
in the adjustment of unfavorable working conditions. 
First, he must take the matter up directly with his 
foreman. If the case is not settled satisfactorily, he 
may appeal to his department representative on the 
Board of Operatives or to the Chairman of the Working 
Conditions Committee, either of whom will bring the 
question before the Board of Operatives. If necessary, 
the Board of Operatives may refer the matter to the 
manager. An appeal from the manager’s decision may 
be made to the Board of Management which is com¬ 
posed of an equal number of representatives of workers 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


141 


and stockholders. In case of a deadlock in this body, 
a thirteenth member may be elected by the Board itself 
whose majority vote shall be final. 

Has an employee a vested interest in his job? Do 
those in control of an industry have a Christian re¬ 
sponsibility in the matter of providing a continuous 
income for all persons directly concerned in that in¬ 
dustry? Is it a progressive Christian step for capital 
to lay aside only six per cent on its investment and 
divide the balance equally between capital and labor? 
The management of the Dutchess Bleachery has endeav¬ 
ored to answer these questions by installing a profit- 
sharing plan upon the following basis: (1) The market 
wage for the industry paid to labor; (2) six per cent 
upon its investment paid to capital; (3) two sinking 
funds determined, the one to be used to assure capital 
its “minimum wage” of six per cent; the other to 
provide half wages to labor during times of unemploy¬ 
ment occasioned either by sickness or a depression in 
the industry; (4) after the sinking funds have been 
provided for, the remaining net profits to be divided 
equally—one half to the owners and one half to the 
operatives. 

The partnership plan continues to be considered by 
its originators in the light of an experiment, but the 
record of their admittedly successful application in one 
plant of certain principles viewed as Christian by par¬ 
ticipants and observers alike, through four and a half 
years, is interesting to students of the vexing indus¬ 
trial problems of the day. 


142 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


In a consideration of any plan for the establishment 
of the partnership of labor and capital it is well to be 
reminded, as we are by F. Ernest Johnson in the fifth 
of a series of articles on “Christianity in Industry,” 1 
that at this stage in the development of industry it is 
merely bold presumption for one to say what indus¬ 
trial structure is the best expression of brotherhood. 
Genuineness of intention, he intimates, cannot be iden¬ 
tified with any one theory of an ultimate industrial 
order. 2 

1 The Christian Work, August 27, 1921. 

2 Miss Agues H. Campbell has made a study of twelve plans 
for employee representation. She describes the Joint Committee 
system of the Pilgrim Laundry, Brooklyn, N. Y.; the John Leitch 
plan of “industrial democracy” established in the McCreery de¬ 
partment store, New York City; the cooperative plan in opera¬ 
tion in the Filene store, Boston, which “puts the final decision 
on all matters except business policies in the hands of the em¬ 
ployees”; the plan in operation at the plants of the Proctor and 
Gamble Company where employer and employees are represented 
in a Joint Conference Committee. The plan for the joint meet¬ 
ings of employees and management representatives based on in¬ 
dustrial study carried on by the Rockefeller Foundation is de¬ 
scribed as it has been worked out in the plants and mines of the 
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Following the above are 
studies of the plans for joint deliberations through the Works 
Council provided at the Lynn Works of the General Electric Com¬ 
pany, at the twenty plants of the International Harvester Com¬ 
pany and the Dennison Manufacturing Company’s plant at 
Framingham, Mass. The “amended plan,” providing for joint 
deliberations through Employees’ Branch Committees and Em¬ 
ployees’ Department Committees and for the plant as a whole 
through the Employees’ General Committee, is described as it is 
now in operation in the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. 
The partnership plan as it has been worked out at the Dutchess 
Bleachery, Wappingers Falls, N. Y., is given in outline as well 
as a study of the plan in operation at Hart, Schaffner and Marx, 
Chicago, which is referred to as “one of the few in this country 
to indicate the possibilities of shop organization within the plant 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


143 


First Steps Toward a New Order 

What are the moral issues growing out of the pres¬ 
ent day industrial conditions? Among the fears of 
labor classified by Hon. W. L. MacKenzie King in 
Industry and Humanity are the fear of unemployment, 
the fear of an unjust reward of effort, the fear of sick¬ 
ness and old age. How to eliminate the fears that 
paralyze industry, and among these the fears which 
capital experiences—how to establish faith in place 
of fear—is the basic problem in the adjustment of the 
relations between the parties to industry. It is a 
question of attitudes. 

The interest of the churches and other religious or¬ 
ganizations in social problems is indicated by the pro¬ 
nouncements of these bodies at their national assem¬ 
blies. Reflecting the spirit of the movement within 
the churches for social righteousness through orderly 
processes, “The Social Ideals of the Churches,” was 
adopted by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ 
in America. 1 

At the Cleveland Convention of the Federal Council 

together with union organization.” Miss Campbell concludes her 
studies with a presentation of the plan for employees’ representa¬ 
tion through the Craft and Plant Committees and the Joint Com¬ 
mittee as organized at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation 
plants in Massachusetts, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland. 
See Constitutionalism in Industry, by Agnes H. Campbell. Book¬ 
let issued by the Congregational Education Society, Boston. 

i “The Social Ideals of the Churches,” appears as the concluding 
section of this chapter. Copies of the same may be secured from 
the Federal Council of Churches, 105 East 22nd Street, New 
York City. 


144 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


of Churches four resolutions were adopted which are 
not a part of the “Ideals,” but were applications of 
its general principles to industrial problems faced at 
the close of the war. These resolutions follow: 

RESOLVED: That we affirm as Christian Churches, 

1. That the teachings of Jesus are those of essential democracy 

and express themselves through brotherhood and the co¬ 
operation of all groups. We deplore class struggle and 
declare against all class domination, whether of capital or 
labor. Sympathizing with labor’s desire for a better day 
and an equitable share in the profits and management of 
industry, we stand for orderly and progressive social recon¬ 
struction instead of revolution by violence. 

2. That an ordered and constructive democracy in industry is 

as necessary as political democracy, and that collective bar¬ 
gaining and the sharing of shop control and management are 
inevitable steps in its attainment. 

3. That the first charge upon industry should be that of a wage 

sufficient to support an American standard of living. To 
that end w r e advocate the guarantee of a minimum wage, the 
control of unemployment through government labor ex¬ 
changes, public works, land settlement, social insurance and 
experimentation in profit sharing and cooperative ownership. 

We recognize that women played no small part in the winning 
of the war. We believe that they should have full political 
and economic equality with equal pay for equal work, and 
a maximum eight-hour day. We declare for the abolition of 
night work by women, and the abolition of child labor; and 
for the provision of adequate safeguards to insure the moral 
as well as the physical health of the mothers and children 
of the race. 


The three great religious organizations, the National 
Catholic Welfare Council, the Central Conference of 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


145 


American Rabbis, and the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America, in June, 1923, through 
their accredited representatives, made joint represen¬ 
tations to the White House as to the importance of 
Federal action in the coal crisis. This united action 
was taken with the avowed purpose of “promoting do¬ 
mestic tranquillity and abridging the causes of indus¬ 
trial strife.” 

Indicative of the increasing interest in problems of 
human relationships in industry are the annual indus¬ 
trial conferences held under the auspices of the Indus¬ 
trial Department of the Young Men’s Christian Asso¬ 
ciation, at Silver Bay-on-Lake George, New York. In 
September, 1922, four hundred delegates from a variety 
of industries and professions were in attendance. 
These included employers and employees, managers and 
foremen, labor leaders, and union and non-union work¬ 
men. There w r ere delegates from twenty different sec¬ 
tions. One of the questions discussed was whether or 
not the work of all parties in industry was a profes¬ 
sion, just as the ministry, medicine, and teaching have 
been made professions. 1 Representatives of labor 
groups and of capital agreed that there is need of a 
new spirit in industry. That it must have men who 
shall agree not to war against each other, “but shall 
cooperate in the gaining of the larger measure of well¬ 
being in which all may share.” “Industry for profit” 
was examined under the spotlight of the higher pur¬ 
pose of “industry for service.” 
i See The Acquisitive Society , by R. H. Tawney, pp. 106 ff. 


146 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Is it not as sacred a thing to furnish society with 
food or with fuel, with clothing or with shelter, as it is 
to furnish society with health or w r ith knowledge or 
with character? Dean Charles R. Brown of Yale Uni¬ 
versity raised the question. It was recognized that 
corporations and businesses and labor groups have not 
recognized this spiritual element in industry and their 
relation to it in terms of their higher natures. “No 
law but the law of justice and love can cure the situa¬ 
tion/’ said the vice president of a paper company. 
“We are looking for radical remedies when the real 
remedies are staring us in the face, but hard to keep 
in mind and hard to practice. Men are hunting for a 
w r av out by going in different directions when mutual 
approach is necessary.” 

A contribution was made to democracy by the union 
of education and industry. The Vocational Educa¬ 
tion Law of 1917 is one of the bridges which American 
educational, social and legislative agencies have built 
between industry and education. The continuation 
schools are the out-growth of this legislation. Eng¬ 
land followed a year later with her educational system 
for employed young people between the ages of four¬ 
teen and eighteen. 1 

A form of education for working men and women 
so constructed as to have distinct relationships with 
established educational institutions as well as w T ith the 
workingmen’s movements has come to be known as the 
adult working-class educational movement. The pio- 

1 See Industrial Goodwill, by John R. Commons, pp. 126 ff. 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


147 


neer achievement in this direction is the Workers’ Edu¬ 
cational Association of Great Britain which has for 
its object “the development of a national system of 
education which shall insure to all children, adoles¬ 
cents, and adults such education as is essential for 
their complete development as individuals and citi¬ 
zens.” This was followed in America by the Workers’ 
University maintained by the International Ladies’ 
Garment Workers Union and by several trade union 
colleges. 1 

Progress in the promotion of education among work¬ 
ing people has not been confined to the efforts of any 
one group of public-spirited people. Adult education 
for wage-earners, in one form or another, is recog¬ 
nized as an essential part of every well-rounded com¬ 
munity program. The work is founded upon a firm 
belief in the desire of the average human being for 
intellectual development involving a sufficient knowl¬ 
edge of economic, social, and religious problems to 
enable him to take an intelligent part in the affairs 
of his community, state, and nation. 

Under the auspices of the Industrial Department of 
the Young Men’s Christian Associations 2,000 laymen, 
in 1922, were engaged as volunteer teachers for classes 
among industrial groups. A surprisingly large propor¬ 
tion of these teachers w T ere managers and foremen. 
Among the latter may be found many who testify that 

i See Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 271, 
for a study of the recent developments in adult working-class edu¬ 
cation in Great Britain and the United States. 


148 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


desirable contacts were made as a result of the class 
work, leading to better human relations within their 
plants. Students in many plants have been advanced 
to better positions by their foremen, including work 
on machines and other responsible jobs. This has been 
the natural result of their increased mentality and 
knowledge of English. 

The social by-products of work of this kind are 
numerous. An industrial secretary entered an office 
in a factory one day and found the general manager, 
two heads of departments, and eight workers, the 
latter foreign born to a man, considering plans for a 
fitting Fourth of July ceremony in honor of employees 
who had received naturalization papers during the year. 
At a night class social held for the operatives of a 
large factory in Passaic, N. J., two Italians volun¬ 
teered to help in the musical program. One played a 
violin and the other a cello. They had been working 
side by side for twenty-eight years, and it was the 
first time that either knew that the other possessed 
musical talent, and it was the first time their foreman 
had seen them in other than working clothes. 

Such men as Raymond Robins, Sherwood Eddy, and 
J. Stitt Wilson have spoken in colleges and universi¬ 
ties in every section of the country under the auspices 
of the Student Department of the Young Men’s Chris¬ 
tian Association, the great burden of their message 
being the necessity of making the whole of life Chris¬ 
tian. Following their lectures, group conferences have 
been held, and a large number of study courses bearing 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


149 


upon the social and industrial problems relating to 
Christian living have been arranged. 

The charter agreed upon at the Berlin Conference of 
the World’s Young Women’s Christian Association, in 
1910, recognized that the “teachings of Jesus Christ 
are the basis of the right social life of women . . and 
urged a “study of the social industrial problems of the 
day by an investigation of the physical and economic 
requirements of women. ...” A year later, the Amer¬ 
ican Association, in its national convention in Indian¬ 
apolis, accepted the Berlin action and selected two 
special lines of study and procedure; namely, the limi¬ 
tation of the hours of labor and a minimum wage for 
women. The position taken by the Association in 
regard to these economic questions was based upon 
well-defined principles relating to the physical health 
and development of wage earners: 

“The Association shall declare its belief in the rights 
of women over sixteen years of age, in good health, 
working a full day, to a living wage which shall insure 
her the possibility of a virtuous livelihood; that the 
Association, recognizing the necessity of legislation for 
the regulation of hours and wages for wage earners in 
industry and trade, hereby expresses its sympathy with 
the great purpose of securing the determination by 
law of a minimum wage for women.” 1 

The self-governing clubs of the Young Women’s 

i Simms, Florence, “The Industrial Policies of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association ”—The Annals of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, p. 139. 


150 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Christian Association are an outgrowth of the belief 
of the Association workers that “the only way to de¬ 
velop girls is to give them a chance to develop them¬ 
selves.” The welfare form of social service with its 
formal schedule of ready-made activities had been 
found inadequate to carry the “life abundant” to the 
girls working in industrial establishments. The girls 
composing the clubs are representatives of a great 
variety of trades, and as they have known hardships 
and have studied industrial conditions in the light of 
the principles of Jesus, they have arrived independently 
at sane conclusions regarding the programs best 
adapted to their needs. In the educational work in 
local fields it has been the policy of the industrial sec¬ 
retaries to build up the curriculum upon the expressed 
desires of the girls themselves. It was inevitable that 
these local industrial clubs should seek contact with 
clubs in other cities that w T ere studying the problems of 
women in industry. Hence the origin of the Industrial 
Summer Councils the recommendations of which be¬ 
come the program basis for the following year’s ac¬ 
tivities. 

The year 1917 brought its challenge. The abnormal 
conditions in the great industrial cantonments and in 
the industrial sections of great cities, gave birth to an 
idea that found expression in the War Service Centers 
which were continued after the war as Industrial Serv¬ 
ice Centers. In 1919, at their first national assembly 
held in Washington, D. C., the industrial clubs made 
the discovery of their unity as a national group. 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


151 


The following year industrial girls, for the first time, 
took part in the national convention of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association. Their direct, unvar¬ 
nished accounts of their struggles as working girls 
did much to convince the national body of women that 
the Social Ideals of the Churches should by official 
action be made a part of the Association’s principles. 1 
A few months later occurred that far-reaching affilia¬ 
tion of interests of the student and industrial groups. 
In New York City in February, 1921, nine girls, repre¬ 
senting the industrial clubs nationally, and a like num¬ 
ber of students, met to formulate an aggressive program 
for the joint study of subjects which concern girls in 
both groups the country over; namely, “in how far the 
spirit of Jesus is being expressed in education, work, 
health, and the cooperative movement.” 2 

In 1922, in the national convention at Hot Springs, 
after two years devoted to study and exchange of 
ideas, the students and industrial girls came together 
to gain their “greatest enlargement of vision” and to 
form a new comradeship. “The college girl in entering 
the world of practical work which the industrial girl 
knows so well, had found a new world open to her, 
and the industrial girl at college, where the coveted 
opportunity for education is at last realized, had dis¬ 
covered a new basis for fellowship and understand- 

1 In 1919 the 40th International Convention of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association adopted the sixteen articles of the “Social 
Ideals of the Churches.” 

2 Fox, Genevieve, “All of One Family,” The Association Monthly, 
June, 1922. 


152 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


ing.” 1 There is now a country-wide cooperation of stu¬ 
dents and industrial girls who meet in groups for “fel¬ 
lowship, work, study, and fun,” each girl seeking “to 
know the life and environment of the other in order 
that working together they may use their energy in 
helping to build a world in which every human life 
can have a chance for fullest development.” 2 

Groups of young people have gone out from 
churches, colleges and universities, under the auspices 
of the Young Men’s Christian Association and Young 
Women’s Christian Association, to industrial centers 
to engage in manual labor, to reside in homes of work¬ 
ers, and otherwise to accept the same conditions as per¬ 
tain to other workers in industry. Certain academic 
requirements were asked of them. The primary aim 
of each group, whether composed of young men or 
young women, has been “to lead students to study the 
problems of industry in the light of the teachings of 
Jesus; to enable them to become more thoroughly and 
accurately informed regarding the fundamental aspects 
of those problems by means of seminars and through 
actual participation as workers in various types of in¬ 
dustry where personal contact and experience will re¬ 
sult in an appreciation of the point of view of both the 
employer and the employed.” 

To assist students to get the most out of their oppor- 

1 Simms, Florence, “The Industrial Policies of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association,” The Annals of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, p. 140. 

2 Simms, Florence, “The Industrial Assembly,” The Association 
Monthly, July, 1922. 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


153 


tunity for first-hand study in the world of industry, 
the Christian Associations endeavor to bring together 
before the close of the academic year all the students 
who expect to work during the summer. Informed 
Christian faculty members are requested to meet these 
groups to discuss with them the Christian philosophy 
by which the students may check up their experiences. 

“No attempt was made to have the students exposed 
to one set of conditions or another, either to limit their 
contacts or to anticipate their conclusions,” reports a 
leader of one of the groups. “They were warned against 
assuming that in so short a time they could safely 
form any other than tentative conclusions concerning 
the working and living conditions with which they 
came in contact.” 

A study of the opinions of the students who have 
joined the summer research groups brings out the in¬ 
teresting fact that, while all have made enlightening 
reports on their particular industry, they are ready 
to admit that the most far-reaching result is a spiritual 
one. This is clearly intimated by a student who spent 
a summer in an industrial plant in Omaha. “The ex¬ 
periences through which I have gone,” he said, “will 
remain a part of my being. . . . This summer’s work 
alone, with the experience of meeting all kinds of 
people in the different walks of life, working with them, 
meeting them on their own ground, making them feel 
that others share their problems, their joys, their sor¬ 
rows, is worth more than a year’s work in sociology 
and economics.” 


154 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


It is not to be inferred from this statement that the 
student in question would minimize the importance of 
his training in the social sciences inasmuch as it un¬ 
doubtedly gave him the power to interpret his sum¬ 
mer’s experiences in terms of human values. 

Open Forums 

The Ford Hall Forum of Boston, Labor Temple of 
New York City and similar institutions are the expres¬ 
sions of the belief of Christian men and women in the 
natural law that truth thrives best in the open. Those 
who are responsible for the maintenance of these 
forums, after years of experience and observation, pro¬ 
fess a continued faith in their educational and religious 
value. To meet a hunger for knowledge which work¬ 
ing people under ordinary circumstances are not able 
to satisfy, to be of service to all the community through 
friendly contacts and “to provide motives for clean, 
honest personal living, and for devotion to the King¬ 
dom of God,” are statements which reveal their pur¬ 
pose. Believing that their existence is to be found not 
in being ministered unto but in ministering to the 
neighborhood, these institutions like the neighborhood 
houses in many industrial centers, have done much to 
interpret the finest traditions of America to unprivi¬ 
leged peoples. The meetings are open to all and an 
orderly discussion from the floor is permitted always. 

At the fifteenth anniversary of the Ford Hall Forum 
held in February, 1923, some interesting figures were 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


155 


presented: 326 Sunday evening meetings had been held 
with 244 different speakers, three quarters of whom had 
appeared but once; 14 per cent of these speakers had 
been women; 28 per cent of them had been ministers, 
priests or rabbis; the entire list of speakers included 
business men, representatives of labor, educators, au¬ 
thors, lawyers, judges, physicians and surgeons, jour¬ 
nalists and social workers. It was stated that at least 
134 different occupations and 37 varieties of religious 
faith had been represented by those who had composed 
the forum and that of these people one third were for¬ 
eign born and nearly two thirds of foreign parentage. 

Many of the forums do more than afford a common 
meeting ground with the working men and women. 
For example, during three years of industrial depres¬ 
sion, the Labor Temple’s employment bureau secured 
positions for an average of 150 people a month. Dur¬ 
ing extended strikes the Labor Temple opened its doors 
for the protection of girls out of employment. Con¬ 
tinuous use of its rooms for meeting purposes is af¬ 
forded labor organizations. 


Salvaging Humanity in a Complex Industrial Life 

Neighborhood houses in many industrial communi¬ 
ties offer constructive programs that bring fathers and 
sons and mothers and daughters together in religious 
and social engagements that strengthen home affilia¬ 
tions, programs that develop the genius of neighborli¬ 
ness among those who dwell in rooming houses away 


156 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


from home as well as among the individual members 
of family groups and in other ways build up the ideals 
of the American home in environments unfavorable to 
home life. Institutions of this character are to be 
found in the great steel districts of Pennsylvania, 
Illinois, Indiana and other states; they are in the coal 
mining regions, and iron and copper ranges and in 
congested tenement districts of great cities where 
dwell the workers in countless industries. They are 
the expression of the spirit of Jesus in the world, 
which says that human suffering and misery cannot 
be ignored. They make possible a ministry to a peo¬ 
ple heretofore unreached by Christian workers. 

Taking a neighborhood house in the Calumet district 
as a model, there may be found all the features of the 
modern community house or settlement, including bath¬ 
rooms and gymnasium for both men and women, com¬ 
munity laundry with space for the sun-drying of 
clothes on the roof, dispensary, reading rooms, rest 
rooms, assembly rooms for lectures, club work and 
other social activities for men, women, boys and girls, 
day-nursery with infirmary, and special diet kitchen 
for children. Every room in the building has outside 
exposure with no lack of sunlight and good air; and 
with a semi-indirect lighting system there are no un¬ 
attractive rooms at night. 

“Not to be ministered unto but to minister” are 
words engraved in marble over the main entrance of 
the neighborhood house in question; they also are writ¬ 
ten on the hearts of those responsible for the carrying 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 157 

out of the missionary program in this great industrial 
region. 

When this building still was in an unfinished condi¬ 
tion and when the children had to stumble over bits 
of lumber, blocks and other debris, there was an at¬ 
tendance of 180 at the Daily Vacation Bible School, 
the pupils representing twenty nationalities. At the 
first commencement exercises of the Daily Vacation 
Bible School there was one room filled with useful 
articles made by the children. The prize individual 
exhibit was a complete outfit of wearing apparel made 
by a young Italian girl. Pianos have been placed in 
the house for the free use of the children of the neigh¬ 
borhood. A music teacher is at the building during 
certain hours of the week to give instruction, the cost 
being nominal for each pupil. For adults there are 
free classes in English, citizenship, home economics, 
physical culture, etc. The dispensary is in charge of 
a trained pharmacist; a local dentist is on duty dur¬ 
ing certain hours each week. During a labor disturb¬ 
ance there was need of a place to nurse the men 
■wounded during a clash of opposing interests. No room 
could be found in local hospitals. The neighborhood 
house threw open its doors, showing the same favors 
to both sides of the controversy. One foreign-speaking 
group is holding religious services in the neighborhood 
house with audiences increasing each week. 

During recent years an interdenominational home 
mission enterprise conducted under the auspices of 
the Council of Women for Home Missions has enlisted 


158 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


the services of college women and the interest of the 
colleges they represent. Local federations of churches 
and college organizations are making contributions to 
this neighborly type of Christian service. We refer 
to the work among farm and cannery migrant groups. 
Revelation of this neglected home mission field was 
made after a survey conducted by the Interchurch 
World Movement. The work has been carried on with 
the hearty approval and material cooperation of the 
cannery owners. Centers were established' and placed 
under the direction of young w^omen who are special¬ 
ists in day nursery, playground, domestic science and 
first aid work. A portable house was purchased for 
one station. It w r as found that thousands of women 
and children employed as fruit, vegetable and berry 
pickers and workers in canneries were in need of a 
particular kind of social-religious service. Results 
have been sought in the way of practical home mak¬ 
ing, sanitation, Christian citizenship and love for the 
simple arts and crafts. Proprietors have caught the 
vision of true neighborliness and have introduced 
needed reforms in the working and living conditions 
of their employees. Desirable, also, has been the in¬ 
terest of the people of the local communities in behalf 
of the migrant family groups. Good neighbors have 
visited the colonies, bringing food and needed house¬ 
hold articles. In one tow T n three churches appointed 
a committee to visit a colony and find out how the 
church constituencies could best cooperate with the 
young women in charge of the station. 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


159 


The Goodwill Industries and allied activities are a 
part of the Church’s program of evangelism, and a 
result of the reluctance on the part of Christian agen¬ 
cies to send the needy to the workhouse or the Asso¬ 
ciated Charity Bureau. In the Goodwill Industries a 
School of Handicraft has been developed, enabling 
many who have no trade to learn one while obtaining 
needed work that brings self-support and self-respect. 
Dr. E. J. Helms, referring to the inception of the Good¬ 
will Industries at Morgan Memorial, Boston, indicates 
how this work differs from that of the ordinary charity 
organization: (1) The applicant is not seeking for 
alms, but for work; (2) when he seeks employment he 
is not listed as a “case,” but treated with the respect 
that is his due; (3) he is put to work in a sympathetic 
Christian atmosphere, and while he works is helping 
some other unfortunate person by his toil; (4) there 
is an easy and natural step from the industries into the 
religious meetings of the church. 

The Goodwill Industries not only save for service 
cast-off clothing and other things gathered from all 
parts of our great cities in “opportunity bags,” but are 
saving to society large numbers of men and women who 
have temporarily lost the knack or the disposition to 
work effectively. Empty lives are transformed under 
Christian influences, and want and poverty relieved 
while new tasks are learned and wages are earned. 
The institutions carrying on this enlarging work have 
been established in most of the important cities from 
Boston and Brooklyn to San Francisco and Los 


160 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


Angeles. They are giving employment to many thou¬ 
sands of people who for one reason or another are 
unable to find work through the customary channels. 

The Salvation Army, keeping in touch with other 
saving agencies, has achieved a commendable record in 
enabling men to retain their self-respect and work 
themselves out of trying predicaments occasioned by 
unemployment, not only by having jobs open for them 
but by throwing around these wayfarers wholesome 
Christian influences. 

The employment bureaus of many local churches and 
Christian Associations are more than job-finding 
agencies. They are a part of a program to make 
available vast resources of human energy temporarily 
unused or misdirected, serving as ministering arms of 
the Church to large numbers of handicapped persons 
in our cities. 

A Problem of Social Solidarity 

The Church has taught that to youth there may 
come a divine call to the ministry and today men and 
women are finding opportunities to answer calls to 
service in fields which too long have been looked upon 
as secular. Does not America need an army of indus¬ 
trial partners who will engage in the struggle, however 
hopeless it may seem, against whatever forces that 
make commercial success the supreme end, rather than 
the spiritual life as Jesus Christ conceived it? 

Who wants to believe that the commercial motive is 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


161 


at the foundation of our American life? Will the 
forces that have been determinative in America’s mak¬ 
ing stand the test as to their continued power to save 
America from the helplessness engendered by class 
struggles? The world cannot afford to lose America’s 
assistance now. The family ideal that lies back of 
the power to live and work together must determine 
human relations internationally as well as nationally. 
Youth, questing, unafraid, and with the spirit of Jesus, 
must seek the causes of social antagonisms and human 
misery and fight to bridge the gulfs which dangerous 
prejudices have thrust between innumerable groups of 
society. Jesus recognized a serviceable quality in hu¬ 
man nature when he asked his Galilean audiences to 
be neighborly. The feeling, “I have need of you,” is 
the first principle of social solidarity; its complement 
is the spirit that says, “I desire to serve you.” 

To the venturesome, the sane, the devoted, there 
comes a clear call to enter the field of industrial Chris¬ 
tianization. But to limit activities therein to those of 
professionally trained Christian workers is to defeat 
the purpose for wdiich such workers are recruited. 
From an enlarging constituency that is keenly alive 
to the Christian philosophy of human relations must 
be recruited the leaders in all far-reaching experimen¬ 
tations and changes in the social order. Lumbering 
and mining, farming and manufacturing, banking and 
commerce, and all other engagements wherein human 
values are involved, call for an expression of a fellow¬ 
ship that can make America Christian for the friendly 


162 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


service of the world. That fellowship is defined in the 
revelation God has made. In the light of that revela¬ 
tion no individual, no group, may avoid answering the 
question, “Who is my neighbor?’’ 

Love is the eternal imperative; by its standards all 
institutions and enterprises of men stand or fall. 


Suggestions for Additional Study and Discussion 

Luke 12: 13-14 i 

Christianity and Economic Problems, prepared by a board of 
editors for the Educational Committee, Commission on the 
Church and Social Service of the Federal Coimcil of the Churches 
of Christ in America, is published by Association Press and is 
recommended for use by groups in a more extended study and dis¬ 
cussion of the general theme of this chapter. Another discussion 
outline published by Association Press bears the title The Chris¬ 
tian View of Work and Wealth. Many groups are using as the 
basis of discussion, The Social Principles of Jesus, by Walter 
Rauschenbusch. The Church and Industrial Reconstruction by 
the Committee on the War and the Religious Outlook is adapted 
for use in discussion. Christianizing Community Life, Ward- 
Edwards, and The Gospel for a Working World, by H. F. Ward, 
also have had a wide use. 

1. WTiat should be the goal of industry? 

2. What common basis have good business and good morals? 

3. Define commercial success in terms of community welfare. 

4. What is your definition of luxury? Is the production of 
luxuries beneficial to industry? 

5. What is a “living wage”? Does it imply the development 
of human personality through Christian contacts and education? 

1 Eow Jesus Met Life Questions. Chapters XV and XVII. 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


163 


6. What are some of the constructive elements of discontent? 

7. What is fundamentally wrong with an economic system that 
creates a place for Christian philanthropy? 

8. What contributions, if any, has the Church made to society 
that have resulted in a marked decrease in destitution? Is the 
Church still actively engaged in a battle against slavery? In¬ 
temperance ? Superstition ? 

9. What solution has Christianity for the world’s economic 
problems ? 

10. What should be the Christian’s attitude toward the intro¬ 
duction of force into human relations? 

11. What does the formation of a board of arbitration imply? 

12. Considered nationally or internationally, what is the rela¬ 
tion between modern industry and war? 

13. What was Jesus’ attitude toward war? 

(The four organizations which have undertaken to hold more 
than two thousand conferences and mass meetings throughout the 
United States for the purpose of urging more effective American 
cooperation in organizing the world against future wars are, the 
World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches, 
the Church Peace Union, The World Peace Foundation of Boston, 
and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. 
These bodies represent virtually every religious denomination in 
the country. Two religious movements of an unofficial character 
are the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order and the Fellow¬ 
ship of Reconciliation. They function through personal contact, 
group meetings and conferences. The aim of both is to unify 
purpose and endeavor for achieving a Christian social order. For 
information concerning the purpose and principles of the Fellow¬ 
ship for a Christian Social Order, address Mr. Kirby Page, Execu¬ 
tive Secretary, 311 Division Avenue, Hasbrouck Heights, New 
Jersey. For a statement of principles revealing the basis of 
activities of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, address Bishop 
Paul Jones, Secretary, 396 Broadway, New York City.) 


I 


164 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


The Social Id eal s of the Chueches 

At the quadrennial meetings of the Federal Council in 1912 and 
1916 the “Social Ideals of the Churches” were reaffirmed, with a 
few new clauses, so that the statement now reads: 

Peesent Foem of the Social Ideals of the Chueches 

The churches stand for— 

1. Equal rights and justice for all men in all stations of life. 

II. Protection of the family by the single standard of purity, 
uniform divorce laws, proper regulation of marriage, 
proper housing. 

III. The fullest possible development of every child, especially 

by the provision of education and recreation. 

IV. Abolition of child labor. 

V. Such regulation of the conditions of toil for women as shall 
safeguard the physical and moral health of the com¬ 
munity. 

VI. Abatement and prevention of poverty. 

VII. Protection of the individual and society from the social, 
economic and moral waste of the liquor traffic. 

VIII. Conservation of health. 

IX. Protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occu¬ 
pational diseases and mortality. 

X. The right of all men to the opportunity for self-main¬ 
tenance, for safeguarding this right against encroach¬ 
ments of every kind, for the protection of workers from 
the hardships of enforced unemployment. 

XI. Suitable provision for the old age of the workers, and for 
those incapacitated by injury. 

XII. The rights of employees and employers alike to organize; 

and for adequate means of conciliation and arbitration 
in industrial disputes. 

XIII. Release from employment one day in seven. 


SOME SPIRITUAL FORCES 


165 


XIV. Gradual and reasonable reduction of hours of labor to the 
lowest practicable point, and for that degree of leisure 
for all which is a condition of the highest human life. 

XV, A living wage as a minimum in every industry, and for 
the highest wage that each industry can afford. 

XVI. A new emphasis upon the application of Christian prin¬ 
ciples to the acquisition and use of property, and for 
the most equitable division of the product of industry 
that can ultimately be devised. 


Supplemental Reading 

Babson, Roger W., New Tasks for Old Churches. 1922. Fleming 
H. Revell Co., New York. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. 
Batten, Samuel Zane, If America Fail. 1922. Judson Press, 
Philadelphia, Pa. $1.60. 

McDowell, John, The Christian Spirit in Industrial Relations. 
Pamphlet published by the Board of Home Missions of the 
Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 156 Fifth Avenue, New 
York. 20 cents. 

King, W. L. Mackenzie, Industry and Humanity. 1918. 

Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. $3.00. 

Page, Kirby (Editor), Christianity and Economic Problems . 
1922. Prepared by a Board of Editors for the Educational 
Committee, Commission of the Church and Social Service of 
the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. 
Association Press, New York. 50 cents. 

Sneath, E. H., Modern Christian Callings. The Macmillan Co., 
1922. New York. 75 cents. 

Tweedy, H. H., and others, Christian Work as a Vocation. 1922. 
The Macmillan Co., New York. $1.00. 

Church and Industrial Reconstruction, {The). 1920. Committee 
on the War and Religious Outlook. Association Press, New 
York. $2.00. 

Church and Industry {The), The Annals of the American Academy 
of Political and Social Science, Vol. 103, No. 192. 1922. 

Paper, $1.00. 












APPENDIX I 

Life Enlistment in America 

By Charles Emerson Burton 
I. Christian Leadership in America 

Today the world looks to America for leadership. What will 
give democracy meaning in Mexico, in Latin America, in Africa, 
in China, in Turkey, in Russia, in demoralized Europe? Only the 
forces which inhere in a Christianized America, the world’s out¬ 
standing democracy. 

The great fountain head of America’s moral ideals is its home 
missionary work. Of course, all the moral forces in America have 
their part to play, but home missions operate at vital and critical 
points. They deal with the strata of society where danger lurks; 
they nourish the altruistic, self-sacrificing, truly patriotic senti¬ 
ments and sanctions. During recent years grave social problems 
have arisen which must be solved. Racial and industrial ques¬ 
tions have been forced to the front in these days. If the salt has 
lost its saltness wherewith shall America be seasoned? 

But is not home missionary work overdone already? Are there 
not more mission churches and more mission schools than there 
should be? Yes, and no! Some earnest Christians have been 
foolish, and on occasion and in some quarters have established 
work that was unnecessary and harmful. There is much less of 
this, however, than is commonly supposed. Powerful movements, 
also, are on foot which are eliminating the major portion of over¬ 
lapping. Moreover, the most essential factor for successfully 
eliminating unchristian competition in religious work in America 
is effective leadership in missionary forces. Only great-hearted, 
large-minded men and women in Christian activities in America 
can save us from the pettiness of short-sighted enthusiasm which 
leads to competitive missionary enterprises. One of the strongest 
challenges to the strongest young men and women for entering 
home fields is that which calls for a leadership which shall corre¬ 
late, if not unite, the Christian forces of America in their mission 
work. 


II. Types of Home Mission Work 

There is a very wide variety of need in home missionary fields. 
1. Ministers. With many denominations the bulk of home 

167 


168 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


missionary service is rendered by ordained, ministers. These serve 
first of all as pastors of missionary churches. These are the grow¬ 
ing points in the life of the Church in America. Without them 
Christianity in the United States would speedily lose ground. Be¬ 
sides pastors, however, ordained ministers are used as evangelists, 
general missionaries, colporteurs, and to supply the need of super¬ 
intendency on the local and general fields. The call is for strong 
men who could have large churches with commensurate salaries 
if they were willing, but who prefer to do self-sacrificing service 
at the point of greatest need. 

2. Parish Missionaries. There is an increasing demand for 
pastors’ assistants. This applies very largely to self-supporting 
churches, but not entirely so, since many of our missionary 
churches need efficient service among the people in their homes. 
This work is most often carried on by young women, but there is 
also a field for young men as church visitors, Sunday-school mis¬ 
sionaries and specialists in social service. Schools under the di¬ 
rection of the various denominations prepare both young women 
and young men for this line of service. Engagements for such 
service are usually made by local arrangement rather than 
through the offices of the mission boards. 

3. Directors of Religious Education. In recent years a 
specialized service is called for when young men and young women 
are sought as religious education directors, their services being 
desired to shape up and direct work of religious education in all 
departments of church life, but particularly in connection with 
the Sunday school. In some instances directors of religious edu¬ 
cation give all their time to one church; in others their work 
embraces a group of churches in town, county, or state. It is a 
developing field in which those who enter it now will have much to 
say regarding its distinctive features. 

4. Medical Work. In isolated places among neglected groups 
hospitals have been established by some denominations, while 
others are carrying on such work in crowded cities among those 
groups that are the most easily over-looked because of their ig¬ 
norance of possibilities of help. In Alaska and in the West 
Indies; among Indians and Spanish-speaking folk of the South- 
West; in rural sections of the Eastern mountains, as well as in 
large places, there is a call for the services of Christian doctors, 
internes, nurses, and dietitians; and there is a great reward in 
this service to those who would otherwise have to endure unre¬ 
lieved suffering. 

5. Social Workers. More and more the churches and mis¬ 
sionary organizations are in need of social workers, such as di- 


APPENDIX I 


169 


rectors of recreation, community nurses, and miscellaneous work¬ 
ers. To a limited extent the boards make arrangements for such 
service, but it is largely a matter of personal discovery of fields 
in which to work. 

6. Teachers. Next to ordained ministers the missionary serv¬ 
ice in America calls for teachers. The service is similar to teach¬ 
ing in regular schools, academies, and colleges, but is distinguished 
by the fact that the work is in missionary institutions and that 
salaries are relatively small. There is call for teachers in the 
young and struggling colleges and academies of the West and 
South; in specialized schools for immigrants, calculated to train 
them for various professions, and especially missionary service; 
in Negro schools, particularly in the South, these of all grades 
from the primary to the university; in the Government as well as 
in the missionary Indian schools of the reservations of the West; 
in Latin-American schools, largely in the Southwest, but also for 
Cubans in the Southeast; in the remote regions, Alaska, the 
mountains, and the islands. In these missionary schools the 
teacher’s life counts for as much or more than his work. He is 
disciplining character as well as training the mind. Out from 
these schools go leaders for the groups from which the pupils 
come. The young Christian who wishes to put himself into the 
lives of his fellows where it will lay hold most powerfully upon 
their souls as well as their minds, should not turn away from the 
call of the mission school. 

III. Qualifications 

Not every one is qualified to become a home missionary. 

1. Physical Strength. There is a tendency on the part of 
many to think if they are not strong enough for the competitive 
professions of life, or to pass the examinations of foreign mission 
boards, they can give themselves to home mission work. It is 
true that those who are not strong enough for the hardest work 
of life can do effective service in some fields; but it is equally true 
that the great challenge of home missions is for workers of un¬ 
usual health and strength, who are capable of enduring and re¬ 
sisting where their weaker brethren would falter, fail, and im¬ 
pede the work. The task of Christianizing America, the hope of 
the world, has a right to call for our strongest and best. 

2. Liberal Education. The curse of home missions has been 
lack of equipment of her servants. So much is involved in send¬ 
ing missionaries to the foreign field that the utmost care is exer¬ 
cised in their selection. The temptation in the home field is to risk 


170 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


the effectiveness of those who give promise, but who have not had 
full educational advantages, so that today in all probability more 
than half of all home missionary workers lack the liberal educa¬ 
tion which they should have for their task. If, therefore, it seems 
as though there were enough men available for Christian service 
in America, let the question be faced as to whether these are 
properly equipped for the service which they should render. 

3. Natural Gifts. Misfits are unfortunate in all lines of life, 
but misfits in home missionary work are especially unfortunate. 
The home missionary must have a love for men; he must be tact¬ 
ful; he must be patient; he must have a saving sense of humor, 
calculated to make him human; if he is to be a teacher, he must 
be apt to teach; if he is to be a preacher, he must have the gift 
of public utterance combined with active mental faculties and 
winsome personal graces. One of the most essential qualifications 
is adaptability. It is not necessary to be perfect, but he who 
considers home missionary service should frankly appraise his 
natural qualifications. 

4. Religious Devotion. What is lacking in any one of the 
above items has sometimes been made up in effective home mis¬ 
sionaries by the depth of their sincerity and the fineness of their 
religious devotion. On the other hand, the absence of this quality 
has frequently unfitted those best equipped in other particulars. 

IV. Support 

If the prospective home missionary has a competence which 
enables him to ignore the question of income, then the matter of 
support is of little consequence except as it enters into the effect 
upon the people served if they fail to do their share. 

1. Rising Standards. The compensation in the past for home 
missionary service has been most meager. Standards are rising, 
however, and with some assurance one may enter home missionary 
service today with the confidence that he will have a living for 
himself and for his family. In this connection there is an inter¬ 
action between equipment and support. With improvement in the 
grade of home missionaries there will be a natural improvement 
in the amount of support which they command both from local 
fields and in aid through the boards. Pensions for old age and 
for disability are being provided by some denominations. 

2. Sacrificial Life. Home missionaries are challenged to 
enter upon this strategic spiritual service of deliberate choice, 
knowing that they are foregoing the good things of this world 
as far as they depend upon the size of income. The candidate 


APPENDIX I 


•171 


should enter home missionary service with the determination never 
to whine no matter how hard his lot. He may enter upon it, 
however, with confidence that his is to be a rich life—rich in its 
breadth of personal experience; rich in its friendships; rich in 
its usefulness; rich in its spiritual relations, for he is to be a 
veritable prophet of the Lord God Almighty. 

V. Appointments 

It is impossible to advertise for candidates for the home mis¬ 
sionary field with as much definiteness as in some departments 
of Christian service, particularly the foreign missionary field; 
nor is it so necessary, since the hazards in the homeland are not 
so great, where one can turn to a similar service, if the first line 
of endeavor should prove not to be exactly that for which one is 
best fitted. 

1. Inquire of Your Board. Let any young man or woman 
contemplating home missionary service inquire of the home board 
of his or her denomination for information regarding the need of 
recruits. 

2. Venturing. The young person who sets out to equip him¬ 
self for the practice of medicine, for example, runs the risk of 
not discovering at first just the right field for his activities; so 
also the young Christian who chooses to prepare himself for home 
missionary service is called upon to venture, first choosing the 
line of work for which he is best fitted, then in preparing him¬ 
self as effectively as possible and exercising faith that the 
proper field will be found. 

3. Experimenting. It is possible for one who is not sure of 
himself to experiment in home mission service. Too much of this 
is, however, to be deplored. The entering of home missionary 
service as an experiment, or as a stop-gap, or as a stepping stone 
to something better, forsaking the work perhaps at the most 
critical juncture, has proven disastrous in home missionary en¬ 
terprises. Our young Christians are asked to put their hand to 
the plow and not to turn back. 

4. Initiative. We live in a land of freedom of life. Our mis¬ 
sionary agencies promote activities along established lines. Crea¬ 
tive minds are needed to find ways to do home missionary ser\ ice 
more effectively. Home missions furnish fields foi initiati\e on 
the part of creative Christian minds unsurpassed by any other 

opportunities anywhere. . „ _ 

Conclusion. The Home Mission Boards of America, the Church 
of Christ in the United States and the Master Himself challenge 


172 


FOR A NEW AMERICA 


the young Christians of this favored land to devote themselves 
to the strategic work of home missions, confident that in so doing 
they invest their lives where they will purchase returns than 
which there can be no larger. 


APPENDIX II 


Student Fellowship for Christian Life-Service 

Data adapted from the “Constitution of the Student Fellowship 
for Christian Life-Service” adopted at the National Student Fel¬ 
lowship Conference, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, 
December 10, 1923. 

Students from different parts of the country who held a pur¬ 
pose in common and who realized the need for mutual counsel and 
inspiration met in conference at the University of Illinois, Febru¬ 
ary 17-19, 1922, and formed the Student Fellowship for Christian 
Life-Service, whose present aim is to unite those students com¬ 
mitted to Christian life-service in prayer, study, and vigorous 
effort to make America Christian for the friendly service of the 
world and to enlist the aid of, and to cooperate in every way 
with, all other existing agencies having kindred purposes. 

Membership in the Student Fellowship is open to those students 
in institutions of higher learning who signify their sympathy with 
the purpose of the National Fellowship by signing and depositing 
with the General Secretary, at 25 Madison Avenue, New York 
City, the following Personal Declaration: 

1 thoughtfully accept the challenge of a world-wide 
need for Christ, and purpose with God’s help to make 
Christian service the motive, guide, and end of my life. 

This Declaration shall be interpreted as meaning the dedication 
of one’s life to a distinct phase of Christian service as a vocation. 


173 


APPENDIX III 


General Reading List 

Diffendorfer, Ralph E., The Church and the Community. 1920. 
Council of Women for Home Missions and Missionary Educa¬ 
tion Movement, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Douglass, H. Paul, From Survey to Service. 1921. Council of 
Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Move¬ 
ment, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Eastman, Fred, Playing Square with Tomorrow. 1921. Council 
of Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education 
Movement, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Felton, Ralph A., Serving the Neighborhood. 1920. Council of 
Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Move¬ 
ment, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 cents. 

Holt, Arthur E., Social Work in the Churches. 1922. Pilgrim 
Press, Boston. Cloth, 60 cents; paper, 35 cents. 

LeSourd, Howard M., Builders of the Kingdom. 1922. Meth¬ 
odist Book Concern, New York. 75 cents. 

Douglass, H. Paul, The New Home Missions. 1914. Missionary 
Education Movement, New York. Cloth, 75 cents; paper, 50 
cents. 

Sneath, E. H., Modern Christian Callings. 1922. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. 75 cents. 

Stowell, Jay S., Home Mission Trails. 1920. Methodist Book 
Concern, New York. $1.25. 

Tweedy, H. H., Christian Work as a Vocation. 1922. The Mac¬ 
millan Co., New York. $1.00. 


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